The Motley Coffeehouse, a student-run café at Scripps College—a member of the college consortium— closed its sitting room during business hours to accommodate protesters against the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid previous allegations of sexual assault. About one hundred students from the Claremont Colleges gathered at Scripps to protest the confirmation. This protest took place at noon, and was planned to last until 1 p.m., but finished early after about half a hour of protests.
The Motley Coffeehouse supported the protest by closing its sitting room from 11 a.m. to noon today to accommodate poster-making and organizing for the protests. In a Facebook post, the Motley Coffeehouse—which usually opens throughout the day until 11:00p.m.—stated that “as we center survivors’ voices, on Tuesday, Oct. 9th, we will be closing the Motley sitting room from 11am – 12pm for poster-making and a space for organizing prior to the protest at Scripps. The Motley mission statement emphasizes engagement with feminist critiques and fostering purposeful change, and we want to make clear our support for the work that is being done by student organizers on campus and for survivors during this time.”
The Motley Facebook page also publicly endorsed this event and encouraged people to attend, stating that “[we] strive to be a space for political organizing and community support”.
According to the café’s mission statement, the Motley Coffeehouse seeks “to be a socially-responsible business that strives to engage with feminist critiques to connect the Claremont Colleges with local and global communities by perpetuating sustainable supply chains to foster independent thinking and purposeful change.”
Two years ago, college administrators ordered the Motley to take down anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-white statements on its chalkboard walls.
The protest was initially scheduled for Monday at the same time, but was moved a day forward due to “Indigenous People’s Day” being held on the same day.
The protest played out similarly to many across the nation—albeit more peacefully—with students chanting “I believe, Dr. Ford, I believe Anita Hill,” “This is how democracy works,” “our choice,” and “hey hey, ho ho, Kavanaugh has got to go!”
Protesters marching across Claremont McKenna College and Pomona College at the Claremont Colleges—which also includes Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College—for about half an hour.
While noon usually is lunchtime for students, many classes at the Claremont Colleges are scheduled until 12:15 p.m.; it is unclear whether any classes were disrupted by the protest.