Shoemaker Square lies at the heart of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Hattiesburg campus, between Cook Library and the Thad Cochran Center, two of the buildings on campus that students frequent the most. The brick-paved courtyard, through which much of USM’s student body passes every day, is the institution’s designated “free-speech zone” where anyone from the Hattiesburg community can come to promote or protest whatever cause they are passionate about. Over the years, United Campus Workers, various student groups, and even members of the satirical “Birds Aren’t Real’ Movement have held demonstrations on Shoemaker Square.