WASHINGTON — Cheerleaders at Howard University in D.C. are the latest athletes to join a countrywide protest during a sporting event’s national anthem.
The squad took a knee at RFK Stadium on Saturday as Howard took on Hampton University for AT&T Nation’s Football Classic. Their picture went viral on Twitter.
.@HowardU taking a knee during the national anthem at Nation’s Football Classic: pic.twitter.com/Lx1MI0rcan
— WPGC 95.5 (@WPGC) September 17, 2016
Howard football players raised their fists, but did not kneel during the anthem, CNN reported.
The cheerleaders at the historically black university join a national protest sparked by San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick, which has trickled from the professional level to the high school level. Most of a Maryland high school football team knelt during the anthem at a game in Montgomery County.
Kaepernick wanted to shed light on racial injustice in the country, previously saying to The Associated Press, “The message is that we have a lot of issues in this country that we need to deal with. We have a lot of people that are oppressed. We have a lot of people that aren’t treated equally, that aren’t given equal opportunities. Police brutality is a huge thing that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of issues that need to be talked about.”
Soccer player Megan Rapinoe has also joined in solidarity with Kaepernick and has even knelt during the anthem at a game for the U.S. national team in Thailand.
