Protesting on Bended Knee

Book excerpt: "That a marketing campaign showcasing Kaepernick could roil emotions and dominate headlines testifies to the electrifying nature of his historic crusade against inequality generally and police brutality particularly. Kaepernick began protesting these matters on the field of play in August 2016, when he was a San Francisco 49ers' quarterback, doing so initially by sitting and later by kneeling during the national anthem. Others followed suit. These gestures incited a national furor, and several of this volume's essays were originally published during that tumultuous period. [...] All of the essays offer perceptive insights about the protests; collectively, they provide a panoramic view of them; most importantly, they show, as does the Introduction, that this tale, with its vast cast and varied scenes, with its knotty conundrums that could not be undone perhaps by any means, was but the latest chapter in a still-grander saga, that of black Americans' fight for freedom, an epic struggle that has necessitated many sacrificing some and some sacrificing everything"--Introduction.