On Saturday night, the Legion of Black Collegians announced that more the 30 members of the Mizzou football program would go on strike until university president, Tim Wolfe sends his official resignation.
The reason behind the strike is one that proves that racism does still exist and these players are not putting up with it.
Thirty-two black players linked arm-in-arm with one another as they were photographed and stood for their own beliefs against racism.
The campus has been the scene for multiple incidents that have left the students at the Missouri school both uncomfortable and at their wits end.
Back in September, Payton Head, a black student and president of the Missouri Students Association was racially abused while walking around on campus. The school waited almost a week to acknowledge the incident and students protested the university’s silence.
Another occurrence happened in October, when members of the Legion of Black Collegians were rehearsing for a play and were harassed on campus. A passerby yelled the ‘N-word’ at the group, an event that would undoubtedly have an effect on the young adults.
As if that were not enough, a swastika symbol was traced on the bathroom wall of a new residence hall, in poop.
The school has allegedly down-played the racial pattern that is clearly an issue on their campus, and the student athletes have bound together to make a change.
The students have started a petition that has over 2,000 supporters and some students are going to even greater extremes with the hopes of getting an impactful reaction from the school’s administration.
Cornerback, John Gibson tweeted on the issue, saying,
“[The decision] has nothing to do with our coaches. Our coaches are 100% behind us. Including the white ones.”
The Missouri campus sits just outside of Ferguson, the town who’s riots sparked the #BlackLivesMatter movement earlier this year.
*UPDATE*
The players banded together against their president and it worked! The Tim Wolfe has officially resigned! CNN covered the announcement where Wolfe stated,
“I take full responsibility.”
Check out the video of the announcement below!
