About 600 ‘Ole Miss’ students gathered Wednesday for the “We Are One Mississippi” counter-protest. Racial slurs were used when about 400 students gathered to protest President Obama’s re-election Tuesday night. The Tuesday night protest grew to about 400 students after Obama was re-elected.
Some shouted, “The South will rise again” during the protest, eyewitnesses and university police officials told The Clarion-Ledger. Others used racial slurs. An Obama campaign sign was also burned.
University of Mississippi students held a candlelight march to protest a spontaneous anti-Obama demonstration on Election Night that turned ugly when some students shouted racial slurs.
Ole Miss is still grappling with its legacy as the setting of racial riots in 1962 after James H. Meredith was enrolled as the school’s first black student. Two people were killed in the violent protests, which forced President John F. Kennedy to send in federal troops.
“It just makes me angry that we’re celebrating 50 years of integration yet people decided to be stupid last night and throw a fit over the election,” student Jordan Price told WREG.
“There’s no place for something like this in our school,” student Mackenzie Widder said.
School and police officials told The Clarion-Ledger that some reports, including those describing the demonstration as a “riot,” were exaggerated.
Dean of Students Sparky Reardon said: “There were tens of thousands of other Ole Miss students who were studying or working for campus media or attending election watch parties. They were busy doing what Ole Miss does best”
The school is working on an appropriate response to the incident.
All of this took place because President Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term? What did they do four years ago when he was elected?
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