Nearly 1,000 joined in a KU march supporting BLM. Here’s how KU athletes started it
While Emma Merriweather walked, she also wondered.
This was Thursday — the Kansas junior women’s basketball player goes on three of these strolls a day, she says — and she noticed that not much was being done on campus in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sidewalk chalk announced where someone could get extra T-shirts. Or free ice cream.
But what about the topic of racial issues at the forefront of the country?
“It’s kind of like everyone’s pretending like it’s not happening,” Merriweather said.
So she started with a thought: On her next walk, she’d bring a sign with her. That would at least be taking some action. Maybe some teammates could join her.
It was the start of something she couldn’t have envisioned, as less than 24 hours later, roughly 800 KU athletes, students and faculty members joined Merriweather on a two-mile walk through campus bringing awareness to racial inequality.
Among the marchers: KU football coach Les Miles, athletic director Jeff Long and chancellor Douglas Girod.
“It’s crazy, because it’s just something that came in my head,” Merriweather said. “You mention something so small, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.’ It just takes one person just to say something, then everybody’s having the same thoughts in their head. You just need to be the first one to say it.”
Merriweather did. When she went to Allen Fieldhouse on Thursday for practice, she was met with so much support from teammates in the players’ lounge that they started to dream bigger.
That discussion — about current racial inequality in light of Jacob Blake getting shot seven times by police earlier this week in Wisconsin — led to the players deciding they were going to sit out Thursday’s practice. They spoke more with coaches, then came up with a plan for an on-campus event with other students, making up a flier and sharing it Thursday on social media.
Others were listening. When Merriweather and her women’s basketball teammates kicked off the march just after 1 p.m. Friday, the people stretched behind for blocks, with just under 1,000 people following her path.
“It’s not just us,” Merriweather said. “There’s plenty of people on the campus who obviously that it affects, and they feel strongly about. There were people who were just walking to class that joined us.”
The hour-long route ended inside Booth Memorial Stadium, where Merriweather addressed the group with a megaphone. She said she was proud, in that moment, to be a Jayhawk.
KU women’s basketball assistant Damitria Buchanan also spoke, reminding the crowd it was the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I have a dream” speech.
“A lot of the things he dreamed about are things we’re still fighting for,” Buchanan said. “But we can’t let that fight die.”
James Anguiano, KU deputy chief for the public safety office, spoke briefly to encourage communication among students and his department so any issues could be better addressed. Long also commended the women’s basketball team for organizing the get-together.
“We can all talk, and we do a lot of talking, and in a lot of places, talking’s important,” Long said. “But we want to challenge you as student-athletes to take actions. The peaceful march today ... powerful.”
It’s likely just the beginning. Merriweather said part of the discussion Thursday among women’s basketball players was continuing to stand up for their beliefs, even after Friday’s demonstration.
“This is not going to be the only thing that we do,” Merriweather said. “If this is what we’re going to do, then we need to keep going. This can’t be a one-and-done thing.”
She was encouraged, though, by all the people she saw gather in Booth Memorial Stadium on Friday.
Her small idea had become something pretty big — and all in a short amount of time.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
