Daniela Brighenti Photo
Menafee Tuesday outside court, gagged, with attorney Kane.
Activists renamed Calhoun College Tuesday.
In the wake of widespread protests, the African-American cafeteria worker who broke a slavery-themed window in Yale’s Calhoun College had criminal charges against him dropped Tuesday and got his job back — on the condition that he forfeit his right to speak publicly.
The state formally dropped felony charges against Corey Menafee — who was arrested and forced to resign after he broke a slavery-themed window in Calhoun College — at a court hearing Tuesday morning. A judge nolled the case.
Menafee returned to work Monday in Yale’s Commons dining hall after the university agreed to reinstate him in the wake of national condemnation for having fired and pressed a felon criminal charge against him.
But in a move more familiar in corporate labor proceedings than in an academic setting dedicated to free discourse, the university included in the agreement to rehire Menafee a provision that he will no longer be able to speak publicly about his case, the university confirmed. Both Menafee and Yale’s UNITE HERE Local 35’s Tyisha Walker (who also serves as president of the Board of Alders) signed the agreement.
Provision #8 in the agreement reads: “The parties agree that neither Mr. Menafee, the Union, nor the University, nor counsel for any of these, will make any further statements to the public.”
Menafee addressed reporters on the steps of New Haven Superior Court this morning with a simple message: “Thank you, everybody, for the support.” He was quickly ushered away by his attorney, Patricia Kane.
In June, Menafee used a broomstick to smash a stained-glass panel in the Calhoun dining hall that depicted two slaves carrying bales of cotton. Menafee was arrested and forced to resign. He faced a first-degree felony charge of criminal mischief and a second-degree misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.
An initial story in the Independent sparked widespread support for his case: A wide range of protesters — including community activists, student groups, and Yale faculty — have rallied for the charges to be dropped and for Menafee to be reinstated to his job.
His case marked the latest episode in a year of racially charged protests at Yale, where students and faculty rallied unsuccessfully for the renaming of Calhoun. Yale said Menafee had willingly resigned his job, but Menafee said he wanted the job back.
He has now been assigned to work in Yale Commons for the next two weeks; it remains unclear where he will be working after that.
Since his June 13 arrest, until signing the gag provision, Menafee has spoken widely about the incident, expressing regret for breaking the window while also decrying racism at Yale. (Above is a clip from an appearance on the Democracy Now! program.)
Just hours before his previous court date two weeks ago, Yale — whose police force originally pressed the charges against Menafee — - contacted the State Attorney’s Office to ask for the charges to the be dropped. And last week — in a statement posted on its website — the university offered Menafee his job back, on the condition that he work in a different dining hall and serve a five-week unpaid suspension dating from the moment of his resignation.
The statement did not mention any prohibition against speaking publicly.
“As part of the agreement that brought Mr. Menafee back to Yale, the parties agreed that they would make no further public statements about these incidents, so that everyone can now move on,” Yale Vice President of Communications Eileen O’Connor confirmed on Tuesday.
Sandoval at courthouse protest.
The provision sparked outrage from demonstrators who stood in support of Menafee over the past two weeks.
“It goes against the First Amendment,” Kica Matos of the Center for Community Change said. “Yale needs to understand they might have imposed restrictions on Menafee, but they cannot shut the community down.”
“If they thought shutting him down was going to have an impact on our broader advocacy,” she added, “they are sadly mistaken.”
“I think that the University’s attempt to silence its employee is wrong,” argued Yale Law grad Katherine Demby. “And I think it shows that Yale’s actions did not come from a genuine wish to reconcile with Mr. Menafee and make amends for the racist artifacts in Calhoun but from a desire to keep this issue as quiet as possible. It’s shameful.
Jackie Salzinger, a rising junior at Yale, said the confidentiality provision proves that Yale did not rehire Menafee out of concern for the employee, but rather because activists “pushed this story into the media spotlight,” preventing the university from covering it up.
“To Yale, this is a PR problem that needs to be solved,” Salzinger said. “How ironic that a university that is making such a fuss about ‘freedom of speech’ would take that freedom away from one of their employees when he starts making moves about injustice in the workplace.”
UNITE HERE Local 35 officials — which represented Menafee in his negotiations with the university — refused to comment on the no-interviews provision. Instead, the union issued this statement in the name of President Bob Proto: “We’re glad to see Mr. Menafee back at work.” A union spokeswoman, Sarah Eidelson, added, “There will be no further comments at this point.”
Outside the courthouse, Kane declined to comment on the gag provision. “We got everything that my client wanted,” she said. “I’m just going to enjoy that moment and let it be.”
“The press, the extended Yale community, and La Unidad Latina made a difference,” she said. “I don’t think there are many towns that have the level of civic involvement New Haven has.”
A crowd of around 40 community members and activists organized a rally in front of Calhoun College on Tuesday morning to denounce Yale for retaining the Calhoun name despite a year-long campaign by students and faculty calling for it to be changed.
“Corey Menafee is our Rosa Parks of 2016,” said New Haven resident Barbara Fair. “And we need more Rosa Parks to undo the terrible legacy slavery has had on our community.”
Edgar Sandoval — a restaurant dishwasher who showed up to the protest dressed in an apron and carrying a broomstick — said the Menafee case resonated deeply with him.
“They think we’re like a dishwasher, we don’t have a voice,” Sandoval said. “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do against what people think is right. Being a dishwasher doesn’t mean you gotta be quiet.”
John Lugo, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Acción, placed a piece of duct tape over the name “Calhoun” on the college’s front gates. On it, he wrote “Douglass” in thick black marker, a reference to the 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, whose name emerged as a popular alternative to Calhoun during the year-long protests.
“We are changing [the name] to Douglass now, as a community, until Yale decides to do it,” Lugo said, to rising chants of “Douglass College” from the crowd.
Several Yale students, as well as a handful of faculty members, attended the morning rally. Tracey Meares, who teaches at Yale Law School, told the Independent that as a tenured professor she feels an obligation to speak out.
“It’s really important to hold administrators to account when they’re doing something that’s not OK,” she said. “There are too many other people who feel the way I do, and understandably don’t feel comfortable putting themselves out there.”
At 9:30 a.m., the protesters made their way down Elm Street to the steps of the courthouse — the same spot where they gathered two weeks ago to salute Menafee after his first court appearance.
Supervisor Assistant State’s Attorney Dave Strollo told the judge that although the state “does not condone this kind of activity,” it made sense to drop charges that the university had no interest in pursuing.
He also noted that most of the glass fell into a “moat area” next to the college and that no one was injured during the incident. On July 12, the University released a statement claiming that the window break led to “glass falling onto the street near a passerby, endangering her safety.”
The judge in Courtroom A, Philip A. Scarpellino, nolled the charges against Menafee. That means the charges will be erased form his record if he doesn’t get in trouble again for 13 months.
“Two weeks ago, we stood here demanding justice for Corey Menafee. This community stood up and fought back,” Matos said on the courthouse steps. “Such was the power of the community that justice prevailed.”
She noted, however, that the group will continue to push Yale to change the Calhoun name. Lugo told the Independent that the group will rally outside Calhoun every Friday until the name is changed once and for all.