Kansas University students lifted sledgehammers Thursday and took a whack at breaking down barriers on campus.

The students gathered in the rain to tear down a symbolic wall of hatred. The symbol was created by university masons from cinder blocks earlier this week.

Before the wall came down, students scrawled racial slurs, terms of discrimination and other messages of hatred on the block wall. The ritual was part of Hate-Out Week, sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center at KU.

The wall came crashing down with a simple command.

“Team ready, pull!” yelled Santos Nunez, program director for the center, and the wall was reduced to rubble as team members heaved at lines attached to the structure.

“We did it because here at the University of Kansas there is a lot of discrimination, although it’s not really apparent,” said Will Bohne, a member of the multicultural affairs committee. “There’s discrimination, there’s hate, but we’re here to fight it.”

Students cheered and clapped as the wall fell. Several students took sledgehammers to what was left of the wall, in a symbolic act of destroying hatred and injustice.

Kansas University students bring down the Hate

“We saw racial discrimination, sexual discrimination and all those types of hates on that wall,” Bohne said. “We were able to bring that down and hopefully raise some awareness here at the university.”

Students also took turns shattering the cinder blocks. Nunez said the project, planned since June, was dedicated to anyone who had been a victim of hate.

Those involved in tearing down the wall were given pieces to take home. Organizers hoped the remnants of the wall would serve as a reminder of the need for change.

¢ 6News video: Wall of hate comes down