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Vol. 79/No. 42 November 23, 2015
Victory over racist harassment at U of Missouri
University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe was forced to step down Nov.
9 as a result of widespread protests led by a Black rights group called
ConcernedStudent1950 (named for the first year Black students were
allowed to attend the school). The college’s football team and many
students and faculty joined the protests. Wolfe had dragged his feet
responding to incidents of racist harassment on campus. Only 7 percent
of the more than 35,000 students are Black.
Payton Head, president of the Missouri Students Association, who is
African-American, reported Sept. 12 that he had faced racist heckling.
Students protested at the school’s October homecoming parade against
Wolfe’s failure to respond.
National attention exploded when the school’s Black football players,
backed by the coach and the entire team, above, refused to play until
Wolfe left.
“You saw what we did here,” Jonathan Butler, a Black graduate student,
told several hundred students and faculty on the Carnahan Quad after
Wolfe resigned. Butler had launched a hunger strike Nov. 2 after a
swastika was drawn in human feces in a dorm. “We chose to fight for our
community. We chose to do what was right.” Butler and other Missouri
students joined protests in Ferguson to demand cop Darren Wilson be
indicted for killing Michael Brown last year.
— JOHN STUDER
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