COLUMBIA, Mo. — Ryan Walters had just arrived at the University of Missouri to coach safeties for the football program when a series of protests related to racial injustice led to the resignations of the system president and the chancellor of its flagship campus.
The student-led movement five years ago, which included hunger strikes and a threat by football players to boycott the season, captured the public's attention. News crews descended on Columbia to document the protests, and filmmaker Spike Lee later turned the months-long effort to affect change on campus into a documentary called "2 Fists Up.