MFP Contributor
Embattled University of Mississippi sociology professor James Thomas has obtained prominent Jackson attorney, Rob McDuff, as legal counsel. Mississippi State Auditor Shad White recently targeted Thomas, contending that the academic broke the law when participating in a teach-in event called Scholar Strike. McDuff says the auditor is misreading the statue, which clearly doesn’t apply.
Auditor Shad White’s subpoena of James Thomas’ emails shows he wants to prove the UM professor went on a work strike. But does the statute against employment strikes apply to efforts to educate students about racial and social justice?
The State wants to fire UM sociologist James T. Thomas for participating in the #ScholarStrike teach-in—but that’s not the only way the prof angered alums and the chancellor’s staff of late. He is also criticizing COVID-19 safety decisions.
University of Mississippi football players marched in Oxford and others in Tallahatchie County on the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder: “We have to be able to show love even when hate is brought to us. We have to be able to create change where this is no change.”
First, University of Mississippi football players faced the stress this week of viewing the Confederate statue in its new home across from their practice field—and now a campus COVID-19 outbreak among athletes.
Black students and faculty at the University of Mississippi explain how administrators, donors and alumni can step boldly into an anti-racist future with transparency, publicly stated solutions and without depending on UM community members of color to do the heavy lifting. They love the university and want to see it reach its, and thus the state’s, full diverse, equitable and inclusive potential.
Oxonian artist and educator John Rash, along with other artists, wanted to project artistic images on the grounds of the Lafayette County courthouse, as well as onto the Confederate monument that calls the public space home. But the county denied him a permit. Now he’s suing.
The Confederate soldier could get the last laugh in his new home at the University of Mississippi. Under UM’s Master Plan, he could be adjacent to a new Tad Smith Mall, with the statue’s walkway feeding into what is slated to be called the “New Grove.”
University of Mississippi alumnus and long-time donor Jim Barksdale reached out to the Mississippi Free Press Friday, July 10, to clarify his involvement in fundraising efforts for the Confederate monument relocation and controversial cemetery-enhancement vision one critic called a “CSA statuary.”
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