To the editor:

According to the AP article, “Newton lauds Kaepernick,” on page 4B of your Sept. 7 edition: “Cam Newton became the latest NFL player to voice his support of free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, saying it’s ‘unfair’ that he’s not on a roster.” A paragraph read: “There are players who believe Kaepernick, who had a better passing rating than roughly half the starting QBs in the league in 2016, has been blackballed by teams for choosing to kneel during the national anthem in protest to police violence and social injustice.”

Apparently the blackballing teams do not remember the decades in which the national anthem was played at the beginning of sports events in which American Negroes were not allowed to play, in spite of equal if not superior ability. Apparently those teams and fans who agree with the blackballing do not remember that George Washington became the first president of our great nation by protesting the political injustice of our former British government. Do they remember that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for protesting police brutality and social injustice?

Does anyone remember that Travon Martin could not walk back from a store to watch the second half of a football game with his father, because a profiling white supremacist posing as a community watch volunteer ignored orders to stay in his car and wait for police? Does anyone remember that hate-mongering talk-radio hosts portrayed Martin as a “hooded thug,” and George Zimmerman as a “victim?” Do Americans as a whole realize that statues of our founding fathers, and a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stand in our nation’s capital today in tribute to brave people who protested sociopolitical injustice?

Why shouldn’t Cam Newton and other NFL players voice support for Colin Kaepernick, when a teenager of their race is murdered during a football game half-time, and the shooter is not only found innocent, but white supremacists are led in praise for him by talk-radio hate-mongers?

Robert C. Currie Jr.

Laurinburg