18 — Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

On Sunday afternoon, 

student-athletes 
gathered together. Not 
for practice, not for a 
game or team meeting, 
but for a protest.

The march in support 

of Black Lives Matter 
was a joint effort from 
Michigan and Eastern 
Michigan 
athletes. 

Eagles linebacker Tariq 
Speights and Wolverines 
senior 
defensive 
back 

Hunter Reynolds were 
the official organizers of 
the event. The football 
players are members of 
the group College Athlete 
Unity — an organization 
that aims to “collectively 
address 
injustice 
and 

affect positive change 
using our privilege and 
considerable platforms.” 

“Today, we are going 

to 
unite 
as 
student-

athletes, we’re going to 
unite as a community, 
we’re 
going 
to 
unite 

as fellow brothers and 
sisters,” Speights said 

to 
the 
crowd 
from 

the steps of Hatcher 
Graduate Library. “And 
we will take the first 
steps 
to 
rebuild 
the 

relationship 
between 

African Americans and 
law enforcement in this 
community.”

After 
speeches 

from 
Speights 
and 

Reynolds, 
athletes 

standing on the steps 
next to the organizers 
put on shirts that read 
“RACISM” with a red 
line through the word. 
With megaphones, the 
organizers led a sizable 
crowd out of the Diag 
and onto State St.

“I think the issue is 

important,” Washtenaw 
County 
Sheriff 
Jerry 

Clayton told The Daily. 
“I admire the young 
folks. They have a voice; 
they’re using their voice 
and I want to support 
everything that they’re 
talking about.”

“Before I was sheriff, 

I was a Black man — 55 
years on this planet,” 
Clayton 
said 
to 
the 

crowd 
later 
in 
the 

protest. “As sheriff, I’m 
a Black man. When I’m 
not sheriff anymore, I’ll 
be a Black man. I have 
three sons from 20 to 32 
and my wife and I are 
traumatized every time 
we see another situation 
of a Black person being 
shot, hurt, brutalized, 
not just by the police but 
by society in 
and of itself. 
And 
If 
it 

doesn’t stop 
now, when is 
it ever going 
to stop.”

Amid 

chants 
of 

“No justice! 
No peace!,” 
“Black Lives 
Matter” and 
“Hands up! Don’t shoot!,” 
Ann 
Arbor 
residents 

watched on. The front of 
the protest, spearheaded 
by the athletes, caught 
the eye of those in stores, 
driving by and eating 
lunch. Staring back at 
them were signs held by 
the marchers:

“SKIN 
COLOR 
IS 

NOT 
A 
CRIME,” 
“I 

can’t breathe,” “Black 
Lives 
Matter” 
and 

“White Silence = White 
Compliance.”

After 
rounding 

the final corner onto 
William 
Street 
the 

march made its way back 
to the Diag and people 
took the opportunity to 
speak after Speights and 

Reynolds 
opened 
up 
the 

megaphone 
to everyone.

Morgan 

Iverson, 
an 
Eastern 

Michigan 
track 
athlete, was 
one of the 
first to take 

the stage. Her message 
was clear: vote. Iverson 
urged those attending 
to make a difference in 
their local elections, not 
just presidential.

Following 
her 

announcement, Eastern 
Michigan football coach 
Chris Creighton stepped 
up to take his turn to 
speak.

“Look around and I’d 

imagine 
every 
single 

one of us has somebody 
here in this courtyard 
that we love,” Creighton 
said. “It’s really easy 
when you think about 
it that way to say that 
Black Lives Matter when 
you love someone who’s 
sitting in this courtyard 
right now. It’s a big thing 
in the world right now, 
but it becomes really 
personal and individual 
when you take the time 
to think about the people 
that you’re with, the 
people that you know 
and the people that you 
love.”

LSA 
sophomore 

student Maya Ferguson 
came 
to 
pledge 
her 

support. She expressed 
that she’s tried to do all 
she could this summer 
to support Black Lives 
Matter 
and 
incite 

change and found it most 
important to simply talk 
to people. 

“Social media is such 

a big thing right now,” 
Ferguson said. “So it 
reaches so many people. 

So I really feel like when 
you have conversations 
with people and you 
talk about what’s going 
on sometimes you can 
really change people’s 
perspective or minds.

So many people say 

don’t mix politics with 
sports, 
but 
human 

rights is not politics. It’s 
something that needs to 
be discussed.”

In that, Ferguson and 

the protest’s organizers 
are in harmony. The 
event was advertised and 
spread via social media, 
and the protest was a 
way to create and engage 
people in conversations 
about race and society. 
To the student-athletes 
and people in attendance, 
that is the way forward.

“Trust me, I don’t 

want to hold (this) in all 
to myself,” Speights said. 
“I’ve been doing that my 
entire life. Ask me the 
questions. I’m here, we’re 
all here, we want to have 
those 
conversations. 

We want to break down 
those barriers. We want 
change.”

Student-athletes organize protest

for Black Lives Matter

NICHOLAS STOLL

Daily Sports Writer

So many people 

say don’t mix 
politics with 

sports, but human 

rights is not 

politics.

MORE THAN

AN ATHLETE

Allison Engkvist/Daily | Design by Jack Silberman