University of Alabama football head coach Nick Saban led a Black Lives Matter march on campus to protest racial injustice with his players and other athletes.
Photos from the event show athletes wearing "Black Lives Matter" and "Defend Black Lives" shirts and holding signs during the protest. The athletes marched from the school's Mal Moore athletic facility to the Foster Auditorium schoolhouse door to hear a speech from Saban.
“This is something that the team decided to do together as a team, so I’m very proud and supportive of what they are trying to say, and in a peaceful and intelligent way. I’m very pleased to be here today,” Saban told AL.com.
In 1963, then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood in front of the same schoolhouse door as he fought against desegregation.
“Sports has always created a platform for social change,” Saban said, according to AL.com. “For each of us involved in sports, I think we have a responsibility and obligation to do that in a responsible way and use our platform in a positive way to try to create social change in positive ways."
This June, the team released a video saying, "All lives can't matter until Black lives matter."
In a video, Saban said, “We are a team, Black, white and brown. Together, we are a family. We are brothers who represent ourselves, our families, our hometowns, our university and our country."
The Alabama football team and other athletes have protested and called for racial justice after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake.