Ole Miss’ football team didn’t practice Friday and instead marched to The Square in downtown Oxford, Mississippi, to bring awareness to racial injustice in the country.
Coach Lane Kiffin participated in the march, and some of the players carried signs that read: End police brutality.
Once at the Square, members of the team gathered around a Confederate statue and began chanting “No justice, no peace” as well as “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “Black lives matter.”
Linebacker Jacquez Jones posted a picture Friday on his Twitter feed of the players standing in front of the statue. His tweet read: Stand Up For Nothing, Fall For Anything #BLM.
Stand Up For Nothing, Fall For Anything ✊🏾 #BLM pic.twitter.com/TS5x5WJst7
— Jacquez Jones (@ESPN_Jac) August 28, 2020
In June, the Ole Miss players called for the statue, which sits in front of the Lafayette County Courthouse, to be removed. In a video, several players, including defensive end Ryder Anderson, running back Jerrion Ealy and linebacker MoMo Sanogo, asked the Lafayette Board of Supervisors to move the statue from its current location.
At Oklahoma, players marched to the university’s Unity Garden, where coach Lincoln Riley spoke to reporters about the conversations the team has had regarding social justice issues, including yesterday after practice.
#Sooners pic.twitter.com/cW0VoJnZn3
— Eric Bailey (@EricBaileyTW) August 28, 2020
“Those conversations have been tough. They’ve been eye-opening,” Riley said. “They’ve been very emotional, very tense. They’ve given every person there not only an opportunity to express themselves, but also, maybe more importantly, an opportunity to listen to what other people have gone through, their experiences. To stop thinking about ourselves every waking second and think about our brothers and our sisters, and what they’re going through and how we can help.”
After Riley spoke, the Sooners paused to take a 57-second moment of silence in honor of Friday being the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
David Wilson contributed to this story.