Over 100 medical, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy students put on their white coats, lit candles and gathered outside UC San Francisco's library on Parnassus Avenue Tuesday night to remember African-Americans shot and killed by police recently in Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
Medical students, like Justin Williams, took the microphone and spoke to the somber crowd, which also included faculty and other staff.
"No sense can be made of the killings of Tyre King, Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott," the 26-year-old Williams said. "But we call on you to renew your commitment to the relief of suffering and to deepen your empathy for your colleagues and patients."
"We urge you to consider the steps that each of us can take to fight systemic racism and our own implicit biases," said Williams, an African-American who grew up in Oakland.
The students who organized the White Coats For Black Lives vigil see "institutionalized racism" as the root of the latest police shootings and other violence. They seek to "safeguard the lives and well-being" of their patients by eliminating racism, according to the group's website.