Howard University‘s women’s hoops team is in the midst of a charge toward the NCAA tournament, all while continuing a protest of social injustice. Now, a six-year ritual where players have knelt during the national anthem has changed.
According to the campus newspaper The Hilltop, the school’s athletic department has issued new pregame protocols and requirements for student athletes, namely that they must either stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room during its playing. Although the change comes in the middle of a dominant season for the Howard women’s team, its origins date back to a women’s hoops game against Army in December.
The women’s team has knelt during the national anthem for six consecutive seasons in protest of social injustice, but Vice President of Athletics Kery Davis announced that a new pregame ritual had to be implemented.
“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,” he said in a statement.
Despite players still wanting to kneel during the contest against the Army (the Bison lost 64-56), associate head coach Brian Davis said the players meant no disrespect toward the Army, as several members of the women’s hoops program have family members who have served.
“Our program has been kneeling since COVID, especially when all the social justice things were happening,” Davis said. “All the young men and women of color [who] were passing away from the hands of police brutality, we decided to take a stand against social injustice. I think that their personnel kind of took it the wrong way and tried to take it somewhere where it wasn’t. We didn’t want to disrespect anybody. That wasn’t our intent. But if we did, we definitely apologized to them, and let them know where we stood with it.”
Instead of standing for the anthem, the women’s basketball team has opted to remain in the locker room. They aren’t the only program to not be present during the national anthem, as Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks have remained in the locker room during the anthem since the 2020-21 season.
“The majority of our players [have] sat during the playing of the national anthem every game this season – a decision made by our players to bring awareness to racial injustice in our country,” Staley told Andscape in 2021 following the January 6 insurrection. “If opposing teams choose to play the anthem during the time we’re in the locker room, then we choose to stay in the locker room.”
Kneeling during the anthem became a central point of Colin Kaepernick‘s protest of police brutality during the 2016 NFL season. Ten years later, it is still causing discussion long after the QB turned activist no longer suited up on Sundays.
Davis said the program is opting to focus on what happens on the court, not off it, in women’s hoops.
“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,” he said.
Other athletic programs on campus took exception to the ruling. The men’s soccer team found issue with the concept of their right to protest being taken away but confirmed they would support their fellow athletes.
“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,” Ireal Wyze-Daly, a junior goalkeeper from Trinidad, said.
