(((EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was CORRECTED at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, 11-17-2015, to change John Gaskin's name, which was reported incorrectly in the earlier version.)))
Jefferson City's NAACP Branch approved a resolution Monday night supporting the efforts by University of Missouri student protesters seeking culture change at the state's largest college campus.
And most of the two dozen people attending Monday's 90-minute meeting also posed for a picture to show their solidarity with the MU students known as "Concerned Student 1950."
That group's name recognized the year the first African American student was allowed to attend the previously all-white Columbia campus - and the students of today made a list of demands to MU officials that included respect for minorities on the MU campus and administration efforts to battle regularly reported incidents of racial slurs and name-calling aimed at minority students.
Rod Chapel, a Jefferson City lawyer and president of the local NAACP chapter, noted the "Legion of Black Collegians" was organized at the Columbia campus in 1969, and issued "a list of complaints and requests - and then here we are (today) with a list that is so similar to the '69 list that it's hard to imagine."
Angela Whitman, now a Jefferson City resident who also has lived in St. Louis, Columbia and Ferguson, told Monday's meeting: "It's just really unfortunate that our kids are going through a racial theme right now - (but) it's not like it's uncommon.
"It's not like it's unheard of."
During a 75-minute discussion of the Columbia issues, John Gaskin, 23, a life-long member of the NAACP who currently sits on the organization's national board, told Monday's meeting in the Lincoln University library that MU's troubles didn't blow-up overnight.
"In full defense of those students, they've been yelling and screaming for a long time," without getting results, he added - until national media started focusing on the recent protest.
As a result, MU System President Tim Wolfe and Columbia Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin both stepped down.
While acknowledging that "we're not going to solve any of these problems tonight," Chapel added: "I hope that the new leadership that Mizzou has will (be) given the authority that it takes in order to implement a new vision, in terms of inclusion and equality for the students there."