COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Student protests over the way leaders of the University of Missouri have responded to racially charged incidents escalated dramatically over the weekend when 32 black football players announced they will not participate in team activities until the president is removed.
In their statement, the players did not say explicitly whether they would boycott the team’s three remaining games this season. Missouri won the SEC East title in 2013 and 2014 but is unranked this year with a 4-5 record.
The statement, issued Saturday night and tweeted by several members of the team, aligns them with campus groups, including one called Concerned Student 1950, that have been protesting the way President Tim Wolfe has handled matters of race and discrimination on campus.
Student groups have complained that the use of racial slurs is prevalent on the campus. Last spring, a swastika was found in a Missouri dormitory, and officials said last month they were investigating another act of vandalism that targeted minorities.
Some members of the 1950 group — which draws its name from the year the university accepted its first black student — blocked Wolfe’s car during the Oct. 10 homecoming parade in an attempt to speak with him. Wolfe did not get out of his car.
On Friday, Wolfe said that he regretted his reaction and that his behavior “seemed like I did not care.”
“I was caught off guard in that moment,” Wolfe said. But he added: “I am asking us to move forward in addressing the racism that exists at our university — and it does exist. Together we must rise to the challenge of combating racism, injustice and intolerance.”
Also, Jonathan Butler, a black graduate student, is nearly a week into a hunger strike to call attention to the issue. The university president met with Butler and student groups last week.
The statement from the football players included a photograph of 32 black men, including Butler.
The message read: “The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe ‘Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere.’ We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!”
In a text message to The Associated Press, the Missouri athletic department responded to the players’ statement by saying: “We all must come together with leaders from across our campus to tackle these challenging issues and we support our student-athletes right to do so.”
The Tigers’ next game is Saturday, at home against BYU.
It’s the latest controversy at the state’s flagship university in recent months, following the suspension of graduate students’ health care subsidies and an end to university contracts with a Planned Parenthood clinic that performs abortions.
The campus in Columbia is about 120 miles west of Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where tensions erupted over the shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown last year by a white police officer.
The campus of more than 35,000 students is mostly white; approximately 17 percent of the student population identifies with a minority group, according to the university website. The Census Bureau shows about 83 percent of Missouri’s population is white, and nearly 12 percent is black.
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