Kaepernick joined tradition

University of Nevada, Reno alum Colin Kaepernick was drawn into a U.S. House election in Minnesota this year, where Democratic candidate and Iraq war veteran Jim Feehan was accused of being a Kaepernick sympathizer.

Kaepernick was also inducted last weekend into his Pitman High School Hall of Fame in Turlock, California.

Kaepernick has been compared to a variety of figures both as a player and as a political activist. History provides precedents that make clear his protests stand in a modern sports tradition.

On Sept. 16, 1960, at a game against the Kansas City A’s, Cleveland Indians pitcher James “Mudcat” Grant altered the last lines of the first verse of the national anthem (“For the land of the free/And the home of the brave”) as he sang, to protest the conditions that were familiar to Grant—“This land ain’t so free/I can’t even go to Mississippi.”

Indians pitching coach Ted Wilks, who was known to throw at black players, snarled at Grant, “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you get, nigger?” A livid Grant walked out of the park and was suspended without pay for the rest of the season. “I’m sick of hearing remarks about colored people,” he said. “I don’t have to stand there and take it.”

Grant has been interviewed more than once since Kaepernick began his protest but has not commented on the younger man.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who trained at Lake Tahoe for the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City, were expelled from the games after they medaled—gold and silver in the 200-meter run—and stood with upraised fists and bowed heads during the “Star Spangled Banner.” The United States Olympic Committee did not stand behind the two men, expelling them under pressure from International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage. Other athletes, including George Foreman, then took up on-the-field protests in their absence.

Though vilified at the time, there is now a sculpture of the two men in San Jose.

Last year, Carlos described Kaepernick as “a sacrificial lamb today. These young individuals, they’re the fruit of our labor. If they thought we were bad 50 years ago, in terms of expressing ourselves, just wait. They got a lot more to come with these young black kids in America today.” The two met in November last year.