Members of Temple University’s Black Student Union remained seated during the national anthem before Saturday’s homecoming football game to protest recent police-involved shootings. The group posted a video of the protest on their Twitter page.
The protest comes in the aftermath of the fatal police shootings of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It also follows similar national anthem protests from San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as well as other NFL players.
“Temple’s Black Student Union is extremely disturbed and disheartened by the social climate of the country we live in bearing in mind the recent murders of Terence Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, Tawon Boyd, and the countless and continuous acts of police brutality towards Black and brown people,” Temple BSU wrote in a released statement. “Lives are being lost without repercussion and consequence from the police officers that commit these acts of murder.”
Temple BSU also said that aside from the Homecoming football game, they won’t rise for the national anthem at any other games for the rest of the season.
“This act is our responsibility to both our members and to our people,” the group wrote. “We kneel in solidarity with the families of those who have passed. Because this is the time, more than ever, for all of us to come together to mourn and to organize ourselves so that we may prosper as a people.”
Prior to the Black Student Union’s protest, a sculpture from artist Kara Springer with the words, “white people. Do something,” was installed in the courtyard of Temple’s Tyler School of Art.
NBC10’s Vince Lattanzio and David Chang will speak to members of Temple’s Black Student Union as well as other students on campus about the recent protests, police-involved shootings and other issues concerning social justice as part of their ongoing college campus tour.
