Albany rallies after discovery of racist Instagram account

More than 300 people rallied at Albany High School on Sunday morning in a show of solidarity after it became public last week that a group of students had created a racist Instagram account targeting black students and a black staff member.

At noon, the crowd held hands, stretched itself in a single line as far as it could around the high school, and began to chant “Albany for all” in unison.

Details of what the images in the account depicted were limited — neither the Albany Police Department nor school officials would describe them in detail.

Other images on the account included photographs of specific students at the school.

Though she wouldn’t go into detail about what sort of discipline the students who created the account would face, Williams did promise the crowd there would be consequences.

Everybody interviewed expressed surprise that this sort of racism and bullying would happen in Albany, a small town and tight-knit community.

Not only had this shaken her, but she said she’d also heard students had been suspended weeks earlier for anti-Semitic actions, though Principal Jeff Anderson said he couldn’t comment on that.