Chicagoan At Center Of Resignation At University Of Missouri
(CBS) – A Chicago student is at the center of a movement that brought down the president of the University of Missouri.
Payton Head, from Chicago's South Side, is the student body president who led the call for the university's president to resign or be fired.
CBS 2's Jim Williams talked to the student's father.
"One of the things I taught was restraint. Know how you have to choose your battles and then you choose your weapons," Lawrence Head says.
Confronted with acts of racism on campus, the junior Head chose organization and student government at Missouri. He and other African-American students said Tim Wolfe failed to respond to acts of racism on campus. The football team threatened not to play.
Wolfe stepped down Monday.
Legal analyst Exavier Pope says young people like Payton Head are driving national movements.
"We're following their conversations now," he says.
Lawrence Head, a retired school principal, said he learned long ago his son would be a leader.
Payton Head graduated from Rich South High School. His twin sister also attends the University of Missouri.
Lawrence Head says his children love the school, despite the problems there.