Mizzou African-American football players join protest for removal of president | USA TODAY College

A series of racist and allegedly racist incidents at a growing number of schools including Yale, the University of Oklahoma, Ithaca College and the University of California, Los Angeles have sparked protests and petitions at campuses nationwide.

On Saturday, some 30 African-American members of the University of Missouri football team announced they will not participate in any football-related activities until Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, has been removed.

They join Jonathan Butler, a black graduate student staging a hunger strike, and campus groups in protesting the way Wolfe has dealt with issues of racial harassment during the school year.

A petition has also been posted at Change.org to remove Wolfe from office; it so far has over 4,500 signatures. And a statement calling for a walkout of graduate school workers on Monday and Tuesday is being posted to social  media.

Ithaca College in upstate New York, where students say President Tom Rochon has given inadequate responses to several allegedly racist incidents on campus and an overall negative racial climate, also has circulating a Student Government Association petition asking for a vote of “confidence” or “no confidence” in the president.

At the Univ. of Missouri, campus group protests include students camping out on the quad, claiming they’ll leave only when Wolfe is no longer president.

Protester camp out on the University of Missouri campus on Nov. 8, 2015. (Photo: Rose Schmidt)

Mizzou football defensive back Anthony Sherrils tweeted a picture of the football team’s statement on Nov. 6, saying:

“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’ experiences. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!”

Several more African-American players, including senior running back and team captain Russell Hansbrough, followed with a series of passionate tweets. Missouri’s student body is 77% white and 7% black, while 58 of the school’s 84 scholarship football players are African-American, according to the university website.

After supporting the athletes on Twitter Saturday night, University of Missouri Athletics tweeted late Sunday afternoon that “our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue.

After meeting with the team this morning, it is clear they do not plan to return to practice until Jonathan resumes eating. We are continuing to have department, campus and student meetings as we work through this issue and will provide further comment tomorrow afternoon.”

“I can’t say I’m entirely surprised (knowing) what kind of man Tim Wolfe is and what kind of leader he is, which is inadequate,” says Abigail Hollis, a senior at Missouri and an organizer with Concerned Students 1950, a group that’s been leading the campus protests. “We are just as committed to our convictions. We will continue to fight and we will get what we want.”

The boycott comes just days after MU graduate student Butler embarked on his hunger strike Nov. 2.

In a letter to the University of Missouri Board of Curators the same day, Butler cited his reasons as several “racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., incidents that have dynamically disrupted the learning experience for marginalized/underrepresented students at the University of Missouri.”

The incidents he listed include: MU canceling Planned Parenthood contracts; a student drawing a swastika in feces inside a residence hall;  “peaceful demonstrators” being threatened with pepper spray; and the Missouri Students Association president, Payton Head, being called “the n-word” while on campus.

Jeremy Schmetterer, a senior at the Univ. of Missouri, said he spoke with Head and “one thing stuck out I: I asked him if he believes there’s systematic oppression and racism on campus and he said, ‘My friends are called racist remarks every single day and the only reason you heard about my story is because I’m president of the campus.’

“I think that’s really powerful right there. I’m Jewish, I’m in a Jewish fraternity, and I’ve dealt with racism, I’ve been called things in bars. I think Mizzou is a progressive and accepting community, but I think there are issues that need to be solved, and the most important thing in (when solving them) is to be able to look at them and accept them. So that’s why I think this movement is such a powerful thing.”

(According to the Washington Post, Head “heard from university officials supporting him, from professors who used his words to spark conversations in class, and, to his surprise, from well-known actor and activist Harry Belafonte.”)

In the letter to the UM Board of Curators, Butler says the incidents were not the university system president’s fault, but “they are his responsibility to address.”

“Mr. Wolfe had ample opportunity to create policies and reform that could shift the culture of Mizzou in a positive direction but in each scenario he failed to do so,” Butler writes.

“I will not consume any food or nutritional sustenance at the expense of my health until either Tim Wolfe is removed from office or my internal organs fail and my life is lost.”

After meeting with Butler, Wolfe made a statement on Nov. 6 reading in part, “I am very concerned about Jonathan’s health. His voice for social justice is important and powerful. He is being heard and I am listening. I am thankful for the leadership provided by him and the other student leaders in raising awareness of racism, injustice, and intolerance.”

Wolfe also addressed racism on the Mizzou campus in the statement.

“Racism does exist at our university and it is unacceptable. It is a long-standing, systemic problem which daily affects our family of students, faculty and staff. I am sorry this is the case. I truly want all members of our university community to feel included, valued and safe.”

The statement also acknowledged an incident that happened on Oct. 10 during Mizzou’s homecoming parade. A group of African-American students wearing shirts that read “1839 WAS BUILT ON MY B(L)ACK” linked arms and stood in front of the car in which Wolfe was riding.

As can be seen at about 6.5 minutes into a video  posted on YouTube, the car lightly hits a protester.

“I regret my reaction at the MU homecoming parade when the ConcernedStudent1950 group approached my car,” Wolfe wrote in the statement. “I am sorry, and my apology is long overdue. My behavior seemed like I did not care. That was not my intention. I was caught off guard in that moment.

“Nonetheless, had I gotten out of the car to acknowledge the students and talk with them perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are today. 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.”

On Nov. 5, Head tweeted screenshots taken from the social media apps Yik Yak and erodr. He captioned the tweet: “These are students @Mizzou. This is how they feel about their peers.”

One of the shots reads, “How do you starve a black guy? You hide his food stamps under his work boots.”

MU Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin responded to Head with a tweet, saying “Sad to see more hate speech hiding behind anonymity. Racism, bias, discrimination have no place here”

Head replied: “I think the problem is that racism DOES have a place here.”

Loftin has also been under fire recently and has released several statements regarding the alleged racist incidents and climate on campus, one addressing the swastika drawn in feces — he wrote that the MU Police Department was investigating — and Butler’s hunger strike,

In the statement about Butler, he says, “Racism has deep roots at our university.”

On Nov. 6, students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and MU surprised Wolfe outside of a building in Kansas City. One student tweeted this video:

“What do you think systematic oppression is?” a student asks.

“It’s – systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success,” Wolfe says.

“Did you just blame us for systematic oppression, Tim Wolfe? Did you just blame black students?” a student shouts in the video.

A growing social media movement has rallied around the hashtags #WolfeGottaGo, #MizzouHungerStrike and #ConcernedStudent1950.

A petition was also started on Change.org that has over 2,800 supporters so far. It reads: “Remove University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, from Office.”

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon also released a statement Sunday: “Racism and intolerance have no place at the University of Missouri or anywhere in our state. Our colleges and universities must be havens of trust and understanding. These concerns must be addressed to ensure the University of Missouri is a place where all students can pursue their dreams in an environment of respect, tolerance and inclusion.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Rose Schmidt is a student at the University of Missouri and is a former USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.