Protests, like at Ole Miss, help to make things better

Thanks to the Ole Miss coach for supporting his players. Kneeling to the national anthem is a peaceful protest, and in this case was in response to a pro-Confederate rally on their campus.

No matter how you feel about our Southern Confederate history, you have to understand that this was a racially charged white nationalist event going on. And the term “pro-Confederate” alone gives just cause for protest. This has nothing to do with disrespecting our military or our country. It has everything to do with drawing attention to racial injustice in America.

I remember going to Razorback football games in 1967 and asking why they stopped playing Dixie, and observing black students carrying protest signs outside the stadium, asking why there weren’t more scholarships given to black athletes. This was during civil rights and I found out later the band director even had a death threat over not playing Dixie.

Before I graduated from college, there were more scholarships given to black athletes, no one noticed we didn’t play Dixie and we moved forward.

People need to realize what is going on in our country right now is a new wave of civil rights, and our history books will note incidents like kneeling, like bringing down prominent Confederate statues, like taking down the Confederate flag in South Carolina state capital, because these things are happening as we move forward and continue to fight for racial equality, justice and freedom.

Every “movement” in history brings resistance, but thank God, inevitably we do move. DENICE NELSON

Fayetteville