
A boycott's birth: How the Missouri race protests began
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — On the day he met with black players for the University of Missouri’s football team, graduate student Jonathan Butler hadn’t eaten for six days.
The players wanted to know why. Butler told them: The school’s president, Tim Wolfe, had repeatedly ignored concerns of black students. He’d rather starve than live with an alma mater that condoned racism.
Usually a world away from the center of campus at the athletic complex, the players were surprised and angry. They decided to launch a protest of their own: They wouldn’t practice or play until Wolfe resigned or was removed. Until the fellow student they had only just met could eat again.
The players wanted to know why. Butler told them: The school’s president, Tim Wolfe, had repeatedly ignored concerns of black students. He’d rather starve than live with an alma mater that condoned racism.
Usually a world away from the center of campus at the athletic complex, the players were surprised and angry. They decided to launch a protest of their own: They wouldn’t practice or play until Wolfe resigned or was removed. Until the fellow student they had only just met could eat again.