Consider This from NPR - The Reaction To Kenosha, From Pro Sports To Washington, D.C.

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

Professional athletes from several leagues said they would not play scheduled games Wednesday night in response to events in Kenosha, Wis.Basketball, baseball, tennis and soccer players announced in the last 24 hours that they would not play scheduled games. These decisions come after Jacob Blake, a Black father was shot by police in Kenosha on Sunday. NPR spoke to the lawyer representing Blake's family, who said earlier this week that Blake is paralyzed from the waist down.Ahead of the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington, NPR's Cheryl Corley reports on an upcoming march for racial justice.Find and support your local public radio station.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Things were quieter in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Wednesday night. According to reports, police and so-called militia members mostly stayed away from protesters. There were some reports of law enforcement putting people in unmarked vehicles, the way we've seen them do in Portland and other cities. This video from a group called Riot Kitchen, they give food to protesters, was posted on Wednesday. That's 12. And they got cars, jeeps with no plates on them.

All the police riding in jeeps with cars with no plates. And then the reaction to what happened in Kenosha spread way beyond the streets of Kenosha. With pro basketball, baseball, and tennis players all saying in the last 24 hours, they weren't going to play. Our team statement, the past four months have shed a light

on the ongoing racial injustices facing our African-American community. Here's Sterling Brown and George Hill from the Milwaukee Bucks last night. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball. When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at

a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard. And in this moment, we are demanding the same from lawmakers and law enforcement. We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake. Coming up, the reaction to another Black man shot by police. From pro sports to Washington, D.C., where a major protest is planned for Friday. This is Consider This from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers.

It is Thursday, August 27th. Milwaukee is less than an hour from Kenosha. The city's NBA team, the Milwaukee Bucks, was the first to say Wednesday night they weren't going to play. That was an even bigger deal when you consider it was a playoff game, that the Bucks had the best regular season record in basketball this year, and that they're trying to win the team's first championship in 49 years. Here's one of their demands read by George Hill last night. for the Wisconsin state legislator to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality, and criminal justice reform. Soon after, more NBA games were postponed, followed by a few Major League Baseball games and the WNBA. Just trying to put everybody in mind, talking to our team and talking to other

teams. We wanted everybody to feel like they were supported and understanding that this isn't just about basketball. That's Ariel Atkins from the Washington Mystics. Every member of the team wore a t-shirt with what looked like seven bullet holes in the back. Representing the seven times Jacob Blake was shot in the back by Officer Rustin Sheskey in Kenosha. We need to understand that when most of us go home, we still are Black, in the sense that our families matter. On TV Wednesday night, in place of the games that weren't played, coaches, players, and commentators just talked about what it feels like to be Black in America and to watch what happened this week in Kenosha. Today, well, yesterday, you know, I was sitting there and I started crying.

This is former player, now commentator Robert Ori. And it's hard to tell your 14-year-old son that I worry about him when he walks out that door. I have a 21-year-old son. I worry about him when he walks out that door. I have a 21-year-old son. I worry about him. And Chris Webber, another former player. I have a godson that has autism, and I just had to explain to him why we aren't playing.

I have young nephews that I've had to talk to about death before they've even seen it in a movie. If not now, when? If not during a pandemic and countless lives being lost, if not now, when? It's striking to watch the sports world react this week when you consider how different things were just a few years ago. Moments ago, as the Rams came out of the tunnel, Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt acknowledged the events in Ferguson. And then they were joined by the rest of the receiving core. Back in 2014, two years before Colin Kaepernick kneeled during a national anthem, NFL players from the St. Louis Rams took the field with their hands raised over their heads.

Like, hands up, don't shoot. This was just a few months after Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Have you seen this? Five players from the St. Louis Rams took to the field with their hands up on apparent protest and show of support for the Ferguson protests. This was all over cable news. A St. Louis police union petitioned the NFL to discipline the players. And there was even talk about whether that would happen. Ultimately, it didn't. But the NFL, which this season plans to paint end racism on its playing fields, expressed no support for the players' cause at the time.

So many people have reached out to me telling me they're sorry that this happened to my family. Well, don't be sorry because this has been happening to my family for a long time. Jacob Blake's sister, Latitra Wideman, talked about Michael Brown and others to reporters this week. Philando, Mike Brown, Sandra, this has been happening to my family. I haven't cried one time. I stopped crying years ago. I am numb.

I have been watching police murder people that look like me for years. Her brother Jacob is still in critical condition. He's had several operations. The odds of him walking again is, you know, it's not very probable. That's the lawyer for the Blake family, B. Ivory Lamar. He talked to my colleague, Audie Cornish, about how police should be held accountable not just for Jacob's killing,

but also the killing of protesters and about how Jacob's family is doing. You know, dealing with the first situation with Jacob is in itself unnerving. And in a protest, in a fight for equality, while citizens try to advocate and exercise their constitutional rights to do so and end up dead at the result of exercising those privileges, it brings America to a new low. You know, it's hard. And the backdrop to this is the Wisconsin

Governor Tony Evers has supported the authorization of members of the National Guard to come to Kenosha to help law enforcement. You know, I think that will probably hurt more than to help the situation. The people, not only in a city of Kenosha or in the state of Wisconsin, they're calling for a dialogue. There needs to be some type of change. Then it happens from the top down. It happens from the chief of police in Kenosha County standing up and saying these officers were, you know, rogue. They did not follow the standard operating procedures. This is not the way we train

our officers. And as a result, you know, we're looking into taking disciplinary action as a result of that. That's the type of action that will calm these type of situations. Jacob Blake was shot essentially in front of his children. What kind of condition are they in right now? How is the family coping? You know, thank you for asking that question. You know, in these situations, the children overwhelmingly have kind of been overlooked. You know, they were in the backseat of that vehicle. They experienced this firsthand, and they are having some real issues. I can tell you that they're going to need very substantial counseling and help to kind of deal with these things.

You know, number one, from dealing with the emotional distress from what they personally seen, and then also from seeing their father, you know, the leader of their family. You know, Jacob was a family man. He was very involved in his children's life. In fact, as we know, on that Sunday, there was a birthday party for one of his sons in which he was kind of orchestrating. And, you know, it's very painful. The Ivory Lamar talking to my colleague, Audie Cornish. August 28th, 1963, was the day Martin Luther King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington. Friday, on the 57th anniversary of that march, protesters are planning a different one, with a different name.

NPR's Cheryl Corley talked to some of them in Chicago. In 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators showed up for what was billed as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Freedom! Freedom! Chicagoan Willie Stovall didn't get a chance to participate. The original march in 63, I was only 15, and you know, you got to obey your parents, so I couldn't go. Stovall stood outside the district office of Illinois Congressman Danny Davis, talking with him and staffer Tiyama Romero about the upcoming march. Stovall says since

the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Bill were a product of the 63 March, he was excited when he learned Davis planned to take several busloads of people to DC for the 2020 March, a march spearheaded by Al Sharpton's National Action Network and a number of partners including the NAACP. He was the first one to sign up online. He was the first one to sign up online. He was the first one on the Internet. When I saw it, I just couldn't turn it down. COVID-19 concerns sidelined the bus trip.

Stovall will attend the march virtually and hear speakers including Martin Luther King III and family members of people whose deaths spurred massive protests, George Floyd, Eric Garner, and others. Congressman Davis was 22 during the historic march. There was so much excitement and fervor in the air. Davis says that was true even though he didn't go to D.C. The focus then was on civil rights and jobs.

And Davis says nearly 60 years later, there's still an urgent need for jobs and opportunity. Economics are worse for many African Americans now when businesses are flourishing. But I think every demonstration, we do them with the idea that change is going to come. Davis Stafford, Tiamma Romero, wasn't alive in 1963, but says she learned at a young age about the march and the King's speech. She says all the turmoil this year, including the police killing of Breonna Taylor, and just this week, the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, makes the 2020 march sadly relevant. People still want to have a dream that they can walk down the street and not

be shot in the back. That's what we're still hoping for. The official name of Friday's gathering is called the Get Your Knees Off Our Necks Commitment March, a direct reference to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. The focus is on the criminal justice system and on support for a voting rights measure renamed for the late Congressman John Lewis, who was a student leader and a speaker at the 1963 march. Carl Ellis, a vice president of the NAACP's West Side Chapter in Chicago, will join the 2020 version virtually. My question is, when isn't it time for a march? I mean, we're still fighting the same battles that our brothers and sisters 50 years ago

were fighting for what was happening with the police, what's happening in society in general. In 1963, A. Philip Randolph, the trailblazing activist behind the march, seemed to recognize what future activists might feel. In his speech, he called the march the first wave of the Civil Rights Revolution. He said demonstrators would return to Washington in ever-growing numbers might feel. In his speech, he called the march the first wave of the civil rights revolution. He said demonstrators would return to Washington in ever-growing numbers until there was total freedom. Decades later, it's a promise that marchers say they must keep. NPR's Cheryl Corley. Additional reporting in this episode from our colleagues at All Things Considered. For more news, download the NPR One app or listen to your local public radio station.

Supporting that station makes this podcast possible. I'm Kelly McEvers. We'll be back with more tomorrow.