AceShowbiz - Actress Sophia Bush is rallying support from her "One Tree Hill" fans to pressure university bosses in North Carolina to fire a professor over controversial outbursts online.

Mike Adams, a sociology and criminology professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington, has come under fire on social media in recent weeks after heavily criticising state Governor Roy Cooper for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which included signing an executive order limiting social gatherings.

However, Adams ignored social distancing advice to dine with six men at a six-seat table, and declared he "felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina" before likening the Governor to a slave master.

"Massa (master) Cooper, let my people go!" he added.

Social media users disgusted by the posts have flocked to sign a petition demanding his dismissal from the university faculty, and now Bush has joined the protests, calling on fans of her former hit TV series, which was filmed in Wilmington, to add their names to the effort.

"This feels like another change for Wilmington that the #OTHfam could make some noise about," she shared on Twitter.

Bush's co-star, Hilarie Burton, is also backing the campaign and pledged to discourage followers from applying to the school "until Adams is removed."

University officials have responded to the scandal by branding the headline-grabbing remarks "vile" without referencing Adams, who also has a history of ill-advised remarks about women and members of the LBGTQ community, by name.

They added, "No matter how upsetting and distasteful the comments may be, they are expressions of free speech and protected by the First Amendment."