U. of Mississippi Students Stage Sit-In Over Racist Social-Media Post

About 60 University of Mississippi students are staging a sit-in at the campus’s administrative building to criticize the university’s response to a social-media post advocating the lynching of protesters in Charlotte, N.C., The Clarion-Ledger reported on Friday.

Angry protests have occurred nightly in Charlotte since Keith L. Scott was shot to death by the police on Tuesday.

The university’s chancellor, Jeffrey S. Vitter, condemned the post, which came from a student’s account, and the student-affairs department is investigating it.

“The University of Mississippi condemns the use of language that might encourage or condone violence. Instead, let’s be respectful and civil in our discourse, as called for in The Creed,” according to a university statement, referring to a campus code of conduct.

Protesters at the sit-in said they wanted Mr. Vitter to work with student groups to improve the campus culture, and they have compiled a list of other demands.

Earlier this year a former student pleaded guilty to hanging a noose and Confederate flag around the neck of a campus statue of the university’s first black student.