The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, started out as a typical early fall day at Emory — with classes underway and students, faculty and staff settling into the new semester.
At 8:46 a.m., the first plane hit New York City’s 1 World Trade Center, known as the North Tower (read Emory alum Adam Mayblum’s account of being on the 87 floor at that moment). In less than two hours, the World Trade Center’s South Tower and the Pentagon were also hit, a fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field as passengers fought the hijackers, and both of the Twin Towers collapsed.
At Emory, as around the world, the community came together in shock and grief.
By 10:30 a.m., a large-screen television had been set up in the middle of the Dobbs University Center (the Atlanta campus’ student center at the time) to broadcast news coverage of the attacks, and a crowd that reached into the hundreds assembled to watch. Harland Cinema likewise put newscasts up on the big screen. Campus Life reserved rooms in the building for quiet reflection and prayer, and the Counseling Center sent counselors to help the community cope with what had happened. The Miller-Ward Alumni House also opened as a place for people to congregate.
Around 11:30 a.m., then-Emory President William Chace decided to suspend all academic operations as of noon, with classes canceled but the hospital and clinic remaining open.
Emory’s Oxford College campus also united to mourn and support each other. Twice that day, at noon and at 4 p.m., Oxford students, faculty and staff gathered in the chapel to try and come to terms with the events of the morning, with another vigil the following day.
‘Let each of us become a healer’
Back in Atlanta, hundreds convened in Glenn Auditorium at 5 p.m. Sept. 11 for an interfaith service of remembrance and resilience.
“The fabric of the Emory community must not now be rent and torn. There has been too much tearing on this awful day,” Chace said at the service. “Let each of us become a healer; let each of us summon up all the lessons of reason and patience and understanding we one day learned, knowing that those lessons would be needed in the days of misfortune. Such a day is today.
“Let Sept. 11, 2001, mark the time when, knowing great sadness and anguish, we practiced the hardest lessons — the lessons of love.”
The following evening, more than 2,000 students, faculty and staff came together for a candlelight vigil organized by the SGA — filling the Quad from Candler Library to the Administration Building. When the evening of prayer, reflections from students, and songs concluded, many left their still-lit candles circling the flagpole, where some remained burning until morning.
Sources: Emory Report archives, 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Photos by Emory Photo/Video.
