Mike Adams, the former professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and anti-abortion writer, has died at the age of 55. Adams was found dead inside his home in the Bayshore area of New Hanover County in North Carolina. Adams was a professor in the department of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and was set to retire August 1 following controversial social media posts related to coronavirus shutdowns and protests against police brutality, WECT News reported. Adams’ cause of death has not been made public.
Adams’ death was confirmed by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, via WECT News. Adams lived in the 300 block of Windsong Road, WWAY News reported. Authorities were called to Adams’ home on July 23 to perform a welfare check.
According to Adams’ Twitter profile, he was also a columnist at The Daily Wire and Town Hall.
Adams Had Recently Agreed to Retire on August 1
In June 2020, the University of North Carolina Wilmington announced that Adams was to retire on August 1. Some of Adams’ Facebook posts had attracted the ire of the school’s students and staff.
On May 29, Adams tweeted, “This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!” WECT reported at the time, “Many saw the use of the racially insensitive slave master term as offensive and demanded that he be fired by the university.”
Actress Sophia Bush tweeted about Adams’ words saying, “Ummm. @UNCWilmington. How do you employ this person?!? The racism and misogyny are atrocious. This feels like another change for Wilmington that the #OTHfam could make some noise about.” Bush starred in the show One Tree Hill, which was filmed in Wilmington.
WECT News reported that the University of North Carolina Wilmington agreed to pay a more than $500,000 settlement. As a result of the settlement, Adams agreed to retire from the school.
Adams Said His Teaching Interests Were: ‘First Amendment, Crime, Evidence Law & Criminal Procedure’
According to Adams’ resume, he received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Adams studied psychology and sociology, specializing in crime and deviance. On his resume, Adams described his research interests as “causes of delinquency, campus due process and free speech issues.” Adams listed his teaching interests as “First amendment and crime, evidence law, criminal procedure.”
In 2000, Adams was named as the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s faculty member of the year. The school’s Pandion Society awarded Adams their Golden Seahawk award.
Adams received national media attention in 2016 when he was accused of bullying a Muslim LGBTQ student named Nada Merghani. That bullying led to calls for Adams to be fired.
Adams Said He Was an Athiest & Democrat When He Joined the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Staff in 1993
On his Town Hall profile, Adams said that he was an atheist and Democrat when he joined the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s staff in 1993. The profile says that “a few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican.”
Adams’ first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, was published in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” on Campus, was published in 2008. His third book, Letters to a Young Progressive, came out in April 2013.
The Town Hall profile said that following his successful lawsuit against the University of North Carolina Wilmington for seven years of back pay and a promotion after the school failed to give him tenure, which he said was “in retaliation” for his outspoken political views, Adams “spent most of the money on guns made by Browning, guitars made by Fender, and amps made by Mesa Boogie.”
Adams wrote on his Facebook About section, “I’m just a black lesbian trapped in a straight white man’s body.”
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