Tens of thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square in London to remember and pay tribute to Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor who died on Friday. Stand Up to Racism, which organised the vigil, estimated that 30,000 mourners had gathered in the square to listen to emotional speeches from MPs, friends and campaigners on Arday’s life and legacy and join in a minute’s silence. Many were dressed in black and held flowers, which they were asked to leave beneath Nelson’s column.
People also carried placards reading “rest in power”. Arday, 41, was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to his home in south London on Friday. He had just resigned from his role as professor of sociology of education at Cambridge, after widespread scrutiny over accusations of plagiarism, which he rejected, and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements.
Opening the event, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the local MP for Arday’s family in Clapham and Brixton Hill, said: “I’m going to look around you and look at how many people have come tonight. He held doors open behind him. He kept them open and thousands of us walked through.
That is why this place is full tonight. And I know that all of you are grieving. I know there are many people that aren’t even here.” Ribeiro-Addy asked that people respect the privacy of Arday’s family, who “lost their son, their brother.
Not a professor, not a headline, not a symbol.” She asked that they be given “time, space and quiet” to grieve. She concluded the vigil by reading out a statement from Arday’s family. They said: “The public cruelty Jason was subjected to was too much for any man to bear.
The outpouring of love, support, and grief since his death means so much to us. Although it is bittersweet now, kindness is needed in life, not just in death.” Many speeches focused on the role of the media in Arday’s death. Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said there had been 249 articles about him within three weeks.
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