NORMAN, Oklahoma – On Friday morning, Oklahoma football players came out of the locker room and headed for the field.
However, instead of training, the Sooners’ football team crossed the area and walked through a door with their arms closed in combination as they walked silently from the football area to the south oval of the campus, where they stood in combination.
Instead of going out individually, they were in rows of 3 or four. Instead of wearing helmets and protectors, they wore black shirts. Instead of education, they quietly crossed the education floor onto Lindsey Street, turning right and heading toward the South Oval.
The Sooners the last team to stand up to police violence opposed to the black community.
“We organize this march of solidarity today, not because we have the answers to everything in our country right now, but we are an organization of other people who are injured, who are scared, frustrated, but motivated to do our part.” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said on unity grass in the shadow of Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
The demonstration took place 57 years after the March in Washington for Employment and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Riley remarked at the end of his speech, before the 57-second Moment of Silence.
The Sooners’ protest came five days after Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot continuously in the back of police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The shooting sparked more talks, and outrage, about police violence in the black community.
After the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their NBA playoff game Wednesday and the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets did the same, the NBA and WNBA postponed their games for several days, the NHL playoffs were postponed on Thursday and several major leagues. The games were also postponed.