Athletes With Voices:The Protest Of Black Athletes in America

In the Fall of 2016, Then, San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick kneeled in protest of the injustices of the U.S. criminal system and the NFL front office went bananas along with the American general public.  Former NFL player and Army Green Beret Nate Boyer was the man Kaepernick consulted about the protest and also joined Kaepernick.  Malcolm Jenkins and Eric Berry were a few players that would stand along Kaepernick in the protest. This protest picked up so much momentum that President #45 came out and blasted the players protesting and calling them sons of bitches This is not new with black athletes in professional sports and it is a subject that has never been easy for the public.  

The earliest protest of note was Muhammad Ali protesting the drafting of blacks to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali at the time was the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and was drafted to the Army, but refused induction to be drafted. The World Boxing Commission would strip him of his title and would be banned from fighting overseas for just over 3 years and would be charged with treason and refusing the draft.  Ali would fight the appeal and take it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and would win and the conviction would be overturned due to the fact that the war went against his religious beliefs and would return to the ring and fight to regain his title 2 more times.  Then,  there was Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting on the medal stand in 1968 at the Olympics in Mexico City.  Fast Forward to the protest of the NBA in 1995 by Point Guard Chris Jackson who would later change his name to Mahmoud Abdul Rauf due to his conversion to Islam. He was exiled from the NBA for protesting the national anthem. So during the playing of the national anthem, he would just pray instead standing. However, the league did state that he would be allowed to pray while the anthem was being played. Tune in on Wednesday at 10pm