Inside History: Protest. Revolt & Reform
For our next issue we take a closer look at the theme of Protest from the events of Peterloo to the fall of the Berlin. Inside we cover a whole range of historical protests and the individuals who led the charge for change. This issues includes: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, The Suffragettes, Billie Holiday and the role music has played in protests, The Civil Rights Movement, Protest and Sport, We are the People: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Bloody Sunday at Trafalgar Square, and much much more.
For our next issue we take a closer look at the theme of Protest from the events of Peterloo to the fall of the Berlin. Inside we cover a whole range of historical protests and the individuals who led the charge for change. This issues includes:
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, The Suffragettes, Billie Holiday and the role music has played in protests, The Civil Rights Movement, Protest and Sport, We are the People: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Bloody Sunday at Trafalgar Square, and much much more.
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“Keep the political
comments to
yourselves. Shut up
and dribble.”
Fox News host
Laura Ingraham
2017, Kaepernick was a free agent and would never again
play on a professional football field.
We see the same themes continued in more recent years.
Following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, an
unarmed Black man, the National Basketball Association
(NBA) - in particular - took a stand of solidarity against
racial discrimination and inequality. Professional athletes
boycotted games and the NBA eventually postponed all
three of its playoff games on August 26, 2020, leading
other professional sports leagues, like Major League
Baseball and Major League Soccer, to call off their own
games. Similar to Kaepernick in years prior, many NBA
athletes continue to kneel during the National Anthem on
a court. that now displays the words “Black Lives Matter”
across it.
Just as Americans responded in 1967 when Muhammad Ali
refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army, just as Americans
responded in 1968 when Tommie Smith and John Carlos
raised their fists in the air at the Olympic Games, and just
as Americans responded in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick
knelt on the football field, many Americans responded
negatively to the 2020 demonstrations of U.S. athletes.
One of the most jarring responses came from Fox News
host Laura Ingraham when she responded to NBA
superstar Lebron James speaking out against racial
disparity by saying, “Keep the political comments to
yourselves. Shut up and dribble.” James responded:
“The best thing she did was help me create more
awareness. I get to sit up here and talk about social
injustice. We will definitely not shut up and dribble. I
mean too much to society, too much to the youth,
too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t
have a way out.”
Athletes have used their platform to create awareness for
racial and social injustice since the beginning of time. The
events of 1967 were not the first; and the events of 2020
will certainly not be the last.
LeBron James with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 (All-Pro Reels)
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Rachel Lee Perez is a two-time published
author, paralegal, ballet instructor, content
editor, and podcaster. As co-host of the
Hashtag History podcast, she releases weekly
episodes about History’s greatest stories of
controversy, conspiracy, and corruption.
Hashtag History can be found on all major
podcast platforms and on their website here:
www.hashtaghistory-pod.com.
INSIDE HISTORY 55
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