Anthem protests spread to colleges, WNBA player sits
NEW YORK (AP) — Liberty guard Brittany Boyd sat on the bench with her head bowed in prayer during the national anthem before a WNBA playoff game.
Hours earlier, college football players for Michigan and Michigan State, along with a group of students at North Carolina, raised their fists during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on Saturday.
Since 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem before NFL preseason games, citing racial injustice and police brutality, his movement has slowly spread across fields and courts in the U.S. On Saturday, college and professional athletes joined together to follow his lead after a week punctuated by riots in Charlotte, North Carolina , and the killing of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma .
Mercury players Mistie Bass and Kelsey Bone kneeled, just as they had done during their first-round playoff game.
The University of Michigan is 6 miles from Eastern Michigan University, where chanting students marched on the field Friday night after the school's 27-24 victory over Wyoming.
Roughly 100 black and white students wearing the shirts participated, as well as at least two UNC band members who took a knee, one while raising a fist.
The 49ers quarterback and some of the other athletes have received backlash from fans and Kaepernick said he even got some death threats .
A photo by former NFL linebacker Kirk Morrison on Twitter shows Kaepernick kneeling while the rest of the team laid on their backs with their hands up during the anthem.