President Trump has called NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, SOBs.

I have never played sports.  A black man, I did grow up in the deep-South, in the time of Jim-Crow legal racial segregation. I did grow up in an activist household.  I did do voter registration of black people in 1968. I did march and protest, including sitting during the national anthem. I did, later, serve my country in the U. S. Navy during a time of racial turmoil and change in that branch of the military. And even while I served, I engaged in peaceful protest of ongoing racial inequities in the Navy.

Here’s my full essay, published in the News & Observer (September 26, 2017):

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article175350526.html