A white North Carolina professor who made social media posts calling the state’s governor “Massa Cooper” and comparing coronavirus restrictions to living in a “slave state” on social media has been found dead.
Lieutenant J.J. Brewer of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found the body of University of North Carolina-Wilmington professor Mike Adams, 55, Thursday while performing a wellness check at his home, according to The News & Observer of Raleigh.
Deputies were conducting a death investigation, but investigators did not release additional details about the circumstances of Adams' death.
Adams recently announced his retirement amid backlash over his social media comments.
Adams, a tenured sociology and criminology professor, was due to retire early on Aug. 1. He recently reached a $504,702 settlement with the university for lost salary and lost retirement benefits.
In 2016, Adams posted an article about a student activist under the title “A ‘Queer Muslim’ Jihad,” The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.
Another controversy occurred in late May when Adams tweeted about the executive order limiting social gatherings signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper during the coronavirus pandemic. Adams tweeted that he dined with six men at a six-seat table and “felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina.” He then wrote: “Massa Cooper, let my people go!”
The tweets, which the university denounced as “vile,” prompted more than 60,000 people to sign an online petition to get Adams fired from his job.
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