While athletes speaking out on social issues is not new in the world of sports, the last couple of weeks has awakened and activated many from youth leagues to professional sports.
Nothing new.
But the last couple of weeks have seen them...at every level...using their voice in a way rarely seen before.
Nat jevon holland: we're humans first, that's the initial thing.
So the empowering part is showing the athletes that they have all the power.
Oregon football players have always had the freedom to be themselves...but the events of the last two weeks have sparked a fire for many to use their platform to make a change.
Verone mckinley: there's no sports, there's no awards shows, nothing is really going so now it's like you can really focus on it and the world is really seeing it.
People kind of see it but go back to their regular lives but now it's out there like this is a real problem.
And it's gotta stop.
Oregon safeties jevon holland and verone mckinley are two such student-athletes have been vocally leading the charge to make change here in eugene, advocating to rename deady hall, whose namesake's history is rife with racism.
Jevon: that is part of our history, but you don't want to glorify that part of our history.
Like even though it's known, it makes an uncomfortable divide for the black community, people of color.
You have this name, where even though it's just a name, it's still paying respect to the man.
University president michael schill recommended renaming the hall, a reversal of his position when the issue was last brought before the trustees in 2017.
Verone: they've tried to make changes, it's never gone through and died down.
So if this is really one of those times you can really push for it and make a change.
During such an important time of conversation and reflection, oregon football coaches took the time to gather the team to discuss the current events.
Jevon: it was respectful, everybody respected everybody's opinions.
Those that didn't that weren't educated and didn't know listened and took notes and understood.
And those that did experience a lot of these things or share that experiences with full heart on the table and emotion and it really impacted a lot of people.
While peaceful protests continue across the country, holland sees substantive action items to maintain the movement.
Jevon: there's more than just police killing black people.
There's environemtnal racism, there's systematic racism, there's educational racism.
That kind of stuff, that's the next step .
Those are the things we have to leda to, getting together.
The football team partnering with the black student union, partnering with other sports and then partnering with the board of trustees to figure out what types of things we need to change to make the environment the best for everybody.
Like many of their teammates at oregon, and their oregon state counterparts that peacefully protested in corvallis earlier this week, holland and mckinley hope to continue to use their platform.
Verone: it really sparked us to really.
We need to start pushing it more and pushing it.
And even when the season starts , we don't want it to die down.
The Starkville community is finalizing plans to hold a peaceful protest this weekend.
