CBC Chair Pens Letter to NFL

On Monday morning, CBC Chair Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) sent the NFL a letter urging team owners to consider the stances of protesting Black players in terms of patriotism and combating police brutality. In the more than 1,800-word letter, the Congressman invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 Letter From A Birmingham Jail and his book of sermons Strength To Love. King sent his letter to white clergymen who believed in dismantling systemic racial injustice in the United States but disagreed with the tactics used by movement leaders. Richmond wrote, “For African Americans, it is not about standing, sitting, or kneeling for the National Anthem―it is about unarmed African Americans lying in a grave who were shot and killed by police officers,” adding, “It is also about a justice system that says that encountering a Black person is enough reason for a police officer to fear for his or her life.” Read the full letter here.