Furor Over Band Protest Leads to a Tense Week at East Carolina U.
Nineteen members of the East Carolina University marching band knelt in support of the Black Lives Matter movement during a performance of the national anthem. But the protests were only just beginning. The band members took a knee before a football game last Saturday, between East Carolina’s Pirates and the Knights of the University of Central Florida. The gesture was similar to demonstrations by professional and college athletes that have swept across the country in recent weeks. But the East Carolina band members’ actions stood out for the intensity of the reaction they provoked both on and off campus.