Mississippi players kneel at national anthem to protest at local Confederation gathering | sport

Eight Mississippi players knelt during the national anthem in response to a rally of Confederation near the arena before their victory over Georgia on Saturday. With the field-line teams at the free throw lines, six players took a knee and bowed at the start of The Star-Spangled banner. Two other players then joined them.

"The majority was simply that we had seen one of our teammates do it and we did not want him to be alone," said Breein Tyree, the leading scorer of Ole Miss. "We're just fed up with these hate groups coming into our school and describing our campus as if we had these hate groups in our current school."

The event of the Confederation was held a few hundred feet from the arena. As a result of violence at a similar rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Oxford community was on alert. Various student groups organized counter-demonstrations on campus on Thursday and Friday. Saturday's march, led by pro-Confederate groups Confederate 901 and Hiwaymen, also drew counter-protesters. The march began at the confederate monument on the town square and ended at another Confederate monument in the heart of the Ole Miss campus.

"All of this involved hate groups who came to our community to try to spread racism and fanaticism," said Miss Miss Kermit Davis. "It has created a lot of tension on our campus. Our players have taken the emotional step of showing these people that they are not welcome on our campus and we respect the freedom and ability of our players to choose. "

Ole Miss won the match on Saturday 72-71.