Eagles wide receiver Alshon Jeffery is calling on his alma mater to take Strom Thurmond’s name off a campus building.
“To celebrate well known segregationist Strom Thurmond’s legacy by keeping his name on our Wellness Center sends a contradicting message to our black students,” Jeffery wrote on Twitter. “We can no longer be held back by those whose ideals represent division. We must continue the fight for equality.”
The president of the University of South Carolina has endorsed removing the name of J. Marion Sims, a South Carolina-born doctor who performed medical experiments on enslaved women in the 19th Century, from a campus building. But he has not supported renaming the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center.
In 1948, Thurmond, who was then governor of South Carolina, ran for president on a segregationist platform that included opposition to integrating the military and preventing the federal government from passing anti-lynching laws. He later spent a half century in the U.S. Senate, where he launched the longest filibuster in American history in an attempt to torpedo civil rights legislation.
Jeffery is using his platform in much the same way as Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson and Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who successfully lobbied Clemson to stop honoring former Vice President John Calhoun, a strong advocate of slavery. NFL players are increasingly using their platforms to affect change in America.