Several Washington Wizards and Mystics players, including John Wall, Bradley Beal and Natasha Cloud, have organized a Black Lives Matter march starting near Capital One Arena on Friday morning.
The District’s basketball stars began posting one of two images to Instagram on Thursday: one with an illustration of a fist with the words “Black Lives Matter,” and another with the hashtag #TogetherWeStand.
According to the photo captions, the gathering is planned for Friday at 11 a.m., rain or shine, at 6th and G streets Northwest, which is a block outside the arena home of the Wizards and Washington Capitals.
Friday is Juneteenth, celebrated by many as a holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S.
A number of other players indicated they plan to attend the event by sharing the photos Thursday, including LaToya Sanders of the Mystics and Rui Hachimura, Admiral Schofield, Moritz Wagner and Johnathan Williams of the Wizards.
Players have been increasingly vocal about Black Lives Matter and racial justice since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in May. Cloud wrote an essay for The Players’ Tribune called “Your Silence Is a Knee on My Neck,” and Wall and others have opened up about the topic in interviews.
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