Athletes have often used their sports to make larger statements about society.
On March 10, Dominique Moody and Danna Matheus of Washington D.C.’s NBC affiliate reported, “Howard University changed its pre-game protocol for the women’s basketball team before their conference tournament.
“Under the new policy, athletes can either stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room. The change has drawn mixed reactions from fans and students, who say the team has routinely knelt before games over the past several seasons.
“Some critics argue the stand or stay-in-the-locker room policy conflicts with the university’s long legacy of student activism.”
The change occurred after Howard took on Army on the hardwood.
As a result, the Howard University women’s basketball team has decided to remain in the locker room during the national anthem for the 2026-27 season.
In 2016, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism.
His decision to silently protest discrimination created a controversy that reverberated throughout the country.
Other players, across multiple sports, joined in the silent protest, which led to many critics saying that they would boycott sports that allowed their players to kneel during the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Critics immediately castigated Kaepernick for his protest, calling him unpatriotic and disrespectful to the American flag and servicemen and servicewomen.
Kaepernick repeatedly told critics and reporters that his decision to kneel had nothing to do with disrespecting the American flag or United States soldiers.
Instead, it was a silent protest, which is protected under the First Amendment, of America’s treatment of racial minorities.
Support and criticism played out racially as well, with the majority of Black Americans supporting Kaepernick’s protests, while the majority of White Americans disagreed with his protests.
Many White Americans, at the time of Kaepernick’s protest, said that they favored the way civil rights icons like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. protested racial inequality in the 1950s and 1960s.
But polls from that era showed that just as many White Americans disagreed with King and the Civil Rights Movement as disagreed with Kaepernick almost 50 years later.
What many Black American leaders surmised from the similar statistics from White America is that many did not just have a problem with the way that Black Americans protested; they disagreed with the fact that Black Americans had the audacity to protest in the first place.
In 2018, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) reported, “According to a January PRRI poll, six in ten (60 percent) Americans agree that professional athletes should be required to stand while the anthem is being played, while 36 percent of Americans are opposed to this requirement.
“However, there are significant differences between White and Black Americans on this issue. While about two-thirds (66 percent) of White Americans agree that athletes should be required to stand while the anthem is being played, less than three in ten (28 percent) of Black Americans shared that sentiment.
“Similarly in 2017, almost half (45 percent) of White Americans agreed that professional athletes making public statements about political issues bothered them. Just about one-quarter (26 percent) of Black Americans shared this sentiment.”
Many White critics said that Kaepernick should focus on football and stay out of politics and social issues.
Fox News personality Laura Ingraham infamously told NBA players like LeBron James to shut up and dribble.
Nevertheless, the Howard Lady Bison have knelt during the national anthem for the past six basketball seasons.
“There have been thoughtful internal conversations between athletics leadership, coaches and student-athletes regarding pregame protocols. The current approach is about supporting our students’ freedom of expression while upholding mutual respect for all communities,” said Kerry Davis, vice president of athletics.
The team will also stay in the locker room for away games during the national anthem.
Associate Head Coach Brian Davis said, “We don’t want to bring any bad light to Howard University, so we just decided to stay in the locker room now for every game, home and away, and we will continue to do that throughout the rest of the season.”
The players said that their actions are not to cause disrespect in any way, but to stay true to their values and convictions.
But many students have voiced displeasure with the school taking any action regarding their national anthem protocol.
Howard soccer player Ireal Wyze-Daly said, “If they can take away our right to protest, what else can they take away. I would never believe that coming to Howard, the biggest HBCU in the world, The Mecca, would basically be forced to bow down to the White oppressive system.”
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) all have a history of protest, and Howard is no different.
In fact, the establishment of HBCUs was somewhat of a protest in a country determined to keep Black Americans at the bottom of the totem pole.
Howard students in the 1930s picketed against segregation, and students in the 1960s participated in the larger Civil Rights Movement.
Proud Howard alumni include former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (law school), former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael (also known as Kwame Ture), former National Urban League President Vernon Jordan (law school), Mary Church Terrell, a suffragist and co-founder of the NAACP and the National Association of Colored Women and Gloria Richardson, who led the Cambridge nonviolent action movement, which was the only female-led movement.
Civil rights leader Andrew Young also attended Howard University.
Along with schools like Morehouse College, Spelman College and Fisk University, Howard is considered one of the most elite HBCUs.
