Activism by athletes bold, professor says

COLUMBIA, MO. When Missouri football players decided to support student protesters by refusing to take part in team activities until the departure of President Tim Wolfe, the message resonated far beyond campus.

Missouri journalism professor Berkley Hudson found a parallel in the famous protest of Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who were ostracized after a black power salute in the 1968 Mexico City Games. More recently, he said, football players at the school had made a statement by supporting teammate Michael Sam after he came out as gay.

“I see a direct connection to that in terms of the willingness of athletes to make a statement,” Hudson said. “There have been cases where athletes have been bold, and this I dare say will go down as one of them.”

Hudson chairs the Faculty Council race relations committee, formed after events in Ferguson to address issues related to race and ethnicity on campus. Jonathan Butler, a committee student member, began a hunger strike last week after what he said was an inadequate response by Wolfe to instances of racism and hate speech on Missouri campuses. Hudson said the athletes’ boycott is pushing more people to engage with the issues raised by Butler.

“Without even getting into whether or not the president should resign, they’re saying we support this effort to have a serious conversation about how people are treating one another and treating one another based on just their skin color,” Hudson said.