NEW HAVEN -- Four people were arrested Friday afternoon in New Haven in an act of "civil disobedience." Protesters are trying to get Yale University to change the name of Calhoun College.
Dozens of people came out to protest and blocked traffic at Elm and College Streets. The protest started around 4 p.m. and the protesters were removed from the road by 4:15 p.m.
"Those four had planned to deliberately defy the lawful order and had made their intentions known to police ahead of time," said Officer David Hartman.
Calhoun College was named after a former Vice President of the United States and slave proponent, John C. Calhoun. Yale's President Peter Salovey is meeting with the Yale Corporation this weekend to review whether the name will be changed.
"They have been given an opportunity to do something right, right now," said Erica Holdridge, Yale Student. "And I hope that they will change the name of the college because it's the right thing to do. And, the Yale community is really, we're better than this."
"By changing the name, we will signal that we no longer honor this history," said Tom Chu, another student at Yale. "That doesn't mean that we are ignoring it. We can have memorials. I'm going to have like a small museum."
At the end of the 2015-2016 School year, Salovey announced the university would retain the Calhoun College name in order "to confront, teach, and learn from the history of slavery in the United States."
The two men and two women who police have not identified were all charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.