BLUEFIELD, WV (WOAY) – Before Bluefield College kicked off its football game against St. Andrews on Saturday afternoon, a group of over a dozen students knelt during the national anthem.
They were protesting racial injustice, in addition to president David Olive punishing the men’s basketball team for kneeling.
Olive made the team forfeit its game against Reinhardt University, which was scheduled for Thursday.
Several demonstrators were Bluefield College student-athletes. Some were members of the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
“I don’t want to be forced to stand during the national anthem, just as a person” said Jewels Gray, a Bluefield College student and one of the protesters. “I believe many people of our country fought, and many people of my ethnicity fought for us to have the choice to stand or to kneel.”
President Olive spoke with WOAY on Thursday, regarding the men’s basketball team’s suspension.
