The Ole Miss football team walked out of practice on Friday in protest of what they perceive as an epidemic of police brutality afflicting the nation.
The players marched from their practice facility in Oxford to a popular local spot known as “The Square,” where they chanted, “No justice, no peace!”
The players assembled in front of a statue of a Confederate soldier. Players called for the monument to be removed or moved somewhere else.
“Friday’s march didn’t last very long,” the Clarion Ledger reports. “The first photos and videos from the event were posted around 9:30 a.m. and by 10 a.m. the players had already begun their march back to campus.
“Ole Miss joins a long list of sports teams that have become involved in activism this week in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The movement began on Wednesday when the NBA playoffs were postponed amid a player strike and multiple MLB and WNBA regular season games were postponed as well.”
Ole Miss was not the only team in the state to cancel a practice in protest this week. Their cross-state rival, Mississippi State, canceled their Thursday practice and marched as well. Several NFL teams also canceled practices and a number of MLB teams postponed their games.
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