Students Occupy Ole Miss Lyceum Following Facebook Post

OXFORD (WCBI) – Ole Miss students are crowding the Lyceum on the Ole Miss Campus in reaction to a Facebook comment made by an Ole Miss student.

The protest grew when a post by Ole Miss student Jordan Samson was picked up by New York Daily News columnist Shaun King and quickly went viral.  In the post reacting to the Charlotte protests Samson stated

” I have a tree with enough room for all of them if you want to settle this Wild West style.”

After word spread Ole Miss issued a statement which said in part “Some social media comments suggest or condone actions that are inconsistent with our core values, our university Creed and in some cases encourage action in direct violation of university policies.”

It’s that statement that is drawing concerns of the students and fueling the occupation of the Lyceum.  The students working with the University chapter of the NAACP want a stronger statement directly condemning the post by Samson,   asking that he be immediately disciplined by  Ole Miss and apologizing for not taking a stronger stance against racist statements made by Ole Miss students in the initial statement.   University leaders are currently meeting about the developing situation and have indicated they intend to address the matter sometime today.   WCBI will have the latest on the situation today on WCBI News