UPDATE: Mizzou president Tim Wolfe announced his resignation, shortly after this article was published.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said she supports students and faculty at the University of Missouri who this week are staging walkouts to protest the school’s handling of numerous allegations of racial abuse.
McCaskill said Monday that she is “proud of the young people on this campus have decided they’re going to make a stand.”
“It’s not their perception. There is systemic racism,” she said on CNN.
“This administration has not prioritized some of the issues that African-American students face on campus, in terms of being marginalized in various ways,” she also remarked.
On Sunday, McCaskill released a statement, calling on the University of Missouri Board of Curators to demonstrate “an unqualified commitment to address racism on campus.”
The movement calling on university president Tim Wolfe to resign was sparked last week, when graduate student Jonathan Butler launched a hunger strike. It gained momentum Saturday, when black members of the football team said they wanted to participate, and received the full-backing of their white teammates and coach.
Cornerback John Gibson wrote on Twitter that the team’s coaches were “100% behind us,” and defensive end Charles Harris, who is black, tweeted: “Mizzou Football is United. No racial division amongst US.”
Coach Gary Pinkel confirmed this on Sunday morning after tweeting a team photo.
“The Mizzou Family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players,” Pinkel wrote.
