More than 30 black football players at the University of Missouri announced on Twitter that they would not play football until the university’s president resigned.
The social media announcement lent support to a campus-wide movement against university president Tim Wolfe. Student protesters say Wolfe has not responded to months of incidents of racism on campus.
On Monday morning, Wolfe announced he was stepping down. Just after his announcement, “University of Missouri,” “Missouri” and “Tim Wolfe” were the most-searched items in the United States on Google. On Twitter, #Mizzou -- the school’s nickname -- was trending worldwide.
Other social media trends help tell the story of the weeks-long protests and unrest at the school. Hashtags like #ConcernedStudent1950 #MizzouHungerStrike took off on Twitter last week and into the weekend.
#ConcernedStudent1950 refers the first year the University of Missouri admitted black students. Concerned Student 1950 is also an organization on campus that has been peacefully protesting for Wolfe to step down.
#MizzouHungerStrike followed graduate student Jonathan Butler’s Facebook announcement that he was refusing to eat food until Wolfe stepped down.
Butler ended his letter with #TheStruggleContinues.
President Obama gets his own Facebook page
You better send him your friend request quickly! U.S. President Barack Obama is now on Facebook. His first post included a subtitled video tour of his backyard -- also known as the White House lawn. He used the video to discuss his fight against climate change: “We’ve got to preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids. And that means taking serious steps to address climate change once and for all.”
In three hours, that post received 39,000 likes and over 8,300 comments. “Facebook, Barack Obama” also soared to the top 10 Google searches by Monday afternoon.
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Words in This Story
incident - n. an unexpected and usually unpleasant thing that happens
step down - phrasal verb. withdraw or resign from an important position or office
subtitles - n. words that appear on the screen during a movie, video, or television show and that are translations of what the actors are saying