COLUMBIA, Mo. — More than 600 miles removed from the social exercise that took place at the University of Missouri last week, the mother of Tigers running back Russell Hansbrough spent long hours worrying about the wellbeing of her son.
Hansbrough, a senior captain of the football team, played a major role in one of the most significant campus protests of his generation, a group of young people now at American universities who have come of age during the time of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Jonathan Ferrell, Freddie Gray and Charleston and, central to all the highly publicized tragedies, social media.