A photo of a 97-year-old WWII veteran kneeling to show support for NFL players protesting during the national anthem has gone viral on social media after his grandson posted it there.
Brennan Gilmore posted the picture of his grandfather John Middlemas on Sunday on Twitter, where it has been retweeted more than 146,000 times and liked over 384,000 times.
The caption read: “My grandpa is a 97-year-old WWII vet & Missouri farmer who wanted to join w/those who #Take a Knee: ‘those kids have every right to protest.’”
Gilmore also tweeted later: “Grandpa has really been an ally to the civil rights movement for many years. He’s an amazing man always on the side of justice.”
Middlemas is a Christian who served with black members of the military on a submarine during his 21 years of military service, the News-Leader reported. He also marched in Springfield in 2013 as a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m trying to say that you have to love everybody,” Middlemas told the News-Leader in explaining the photo. “We don’t kill people. We want to make people live.”
Middlemas took the photo partly because of the comments made by President Donald Trump in which he said athletes who kneeled, sat, or didn’t show up during the national anthem should be fired.
Many Twitter commenters said Middlemas had become “everyone’s Grandpa.”
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