Approximately 30 black students were kicked out of a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Valdosta State University in Georgia on Monday.
Law enforcement booted the students, who were reportedly quiet at the time, before Trump started talking.
"I think we got kicked out because we're a group of black people," one of the students said. "It shows you how racist our own school is that we can't even go to our own school complex."
Valdosta State University only began to allow black students to attend in 1963, nine years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separate public educational institutions for black and white students were unconstitutional.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied that the campaign knew the students were removed, though students say they were told that Trump did not want them in attendance.
Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress appeared to confirm that Trump's team had the students ejected. “These folks were told to leave the PE complex by the Trump detail,” Childress told USA Today. Though the U.S. Secret Service was in attendance, an agency spokesperson said they were not involved.
Childress added the students were removed after causing a "disturbance."
"They were not removed because of signs, because of their belief, or because of race," he said, repeating that "Trump staff" had been involved in the students' ejection. "They were removed because they were loud and disruptive and dropping the F bomb."
Police chief says Valdosta students were being disruptive, and used "f-bomb." "You can’t be in there using profanity. That violates GA law.”— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 1, 2016
"We came in quiet, we weren't starting any trouble," a student said, contradicting his account. "We just came in together as a group to see what the presidential candidate had to offer to not only our campus, but the community as well as our country."
Trump has recently been criticized for wavering on whether or not he disavows David Duke, a prominent white supremacist who has long been associated with the Ku Klux Klan.
Last week, Duke encouraged listeners on his radio program to vote for Trump and to volunteer on his behalf. At Trump campaign headquarters, he said, "you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have.”