Anti-Obama Protest at Ole Miss Turns Unruly.

A student protest at the University of Mississippi against the re-election of

President Obama turned disorderly on Wednesday morning, with some students
chanting racial epithets and two arrested for disorderly conduct.

The university said in a statement that a crowd of 400 people formed at the
student union shortly before midnight after reports of a riot spread on social
media. Some students yelled racial slurs and profanity in anger over Mr.
Obama's re-election, the statement said. Photographs posted online showed
students lighting Obama campaign signs on fire.

The university's chancellor, Dan Jones, said, ''All of us are ashamed of the few
students who have negatively affected the reputations of each of us and of our
university.'' No one was injured, and no property was damaged, but Dr. Jones
said the campus police were investigating.

Mr. Obama lost to Mitt Romney in Mississippi by a wide margin. But after Mr.
Obama was declared the winner in the national race, 30 or 40 people began
protesting on the campus, and a rumor spread through Twitter that it was a riot.
''The gathering seems to have been fueled by social media, and the conversation
should have stayed there,'' Dr. Jones said.

On Sept. 30, the university marked the 50th anniversary of the riots that
followed its racial desegregation. In recent years, it has taken steps to address
complaints of insensitivity, changing its mascot to a black bear from a
Confederate soldier and dropping ''Dixie'' as its unofficial fight song. Students
elected the first black homecoming queen this year.

Margaret Ann Morgan, a senior who is white, said the protests cast the
university in a bad light. Both black and white students will march across campus
holding candles, she said.

''What happened last night was really disappointing,'' she said. ''We do have a
history of racial issues, but this is not at all what our school or most students
stand for.''

New York Times, 11/ 8/2012, p9, 0p