ARCHIVAL:
NEWS REPORT: In a span of five years, Kaepernick went from being the dynamic quarterback projected to revolutionize the position to the face of a movement who placed a heightened awareness on social activism.
COLIN KAEPERNICK: I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me, this is something that has to change.
NARRATION: For millions of people around the world, the name Louis Armstrong means warmth, delight and love.
JELANI COBB (THE NEW YORKER): In the first half of the 20th century, with African Americans being denied access to many organs of public conversations, individuals who had stature – predominantly entertainers, athletes and entertainers – kind of took on this position as racial spokespersons.
ARCHIVAL (1957):
The state of Arkansas defying the federal government. Arkansas National Guardsmen under the orders of Governor Faubus preventing nine Negro youngsters from attending the Central High School in Little Rock.
JELANI COBB: When Louis Armstrong is questioned about the Little Rock crisis and integration, he really blows his top, which is something uncharacteristic. You know, people thought of him as this genial, avuncular, almost caricature figure. And then, when he expresses what he actually thinks, it also raised the question of, what else were all the other Black people thinking? Like, what kind of anger did they harbor and so on. And so Black entertainers have found themselves in that odd position of being intermediaries, often, between African American communities and a bigger white world.
(END)
