M
THE MANEATER and
MOVE MAGAZINE
ONE YEAR LATER
An examination of how our campus has changed, how last year fits into our history and where our university is headed A lot can change in a year.
One year ago today, 11 student activists stood hand-in-hand on Traditions Plaza and addressed a crowd of over 500 students and faculty. Two highlevel administrators stepped down in a whirl of controversy amid building pressure from students. Members and supporters of student activist group Concerned Student 1950 started packing up their tents from the campsite they had occupied on Carnahan Quad for more than a week, and graduate student Jonathan Butler ended his eight-day hunger strike. The atmosphere of protests across campus shifted from disappointment to hope. That was Nov. 9, 2015, the culmination of a semester of racial tensions and campus unrest. One year later, five of Concerned Student 1950’s original eight demands have been met. This year’s freshman class was the first to attend mandatory diversity training at the start of the semester. The UM System found a new president.
Trump shocks the world, claims the presidency pg. 3
“If this is the power that can manifest in a year, imagine what we can do in our lifetime,” Concerned Student 1950 tweeted on Oct. 10, the one-year anniversary of the group’s formation. “Keep resisting! It is our duty!” But there’s still more to be done. When Payton Head, the Missouri Students Association president at the time, wrote a Facebook post last fall about his experience being called the N-word on campus, he reopened the dialogue about race at MU. But race relations had been a pertinent subject on campus long before then. After Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson in August 2014, students came together to form MU4MikeBrown, a social justice movement closely aligned with Black Lives Matter. In 1990, more than 150 students marched in the Homecoming parade in protest of racial injustices. In 1968, black students established the Legion of Black Collegians
The status of CS1950’s original demands pg. 5
after white students waved a Confederate flag at a football game. Before Jonathan Butler and Concerned Student 1950, there were the initial members of LBC and the students who continued fighting for inclusion in the years to come. Before them, there was Lucile Bluford. Before her, there was Lloyd Gaines. This isn’t the anniversary of a student movement. The movement has existed under different names with different students going back decades. This is the anniversary of these students being heard. There are still changes to be made and demands to be met. History repeated itself earlier this semester when LBC members were called racial slurs, almost a year after last time.
Inside the critical football boycott pg. 8
Change has been slow. But more recently, it’s been steady.
A timeline of major campus protests pg. 11