Colin Kaepernick has been honored by the ACLU with an award for courage in advocacy.
The ACLU of Southern California presented the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback with its Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award at a banquet on Sunday in Beverly Hills, California.
Other Hollywood figures honored at the star-studded Bill Of Rights Dinner included actresses Jane Fonda, Viola Davis and Gina Rodriguez, and directors Judd Apatow and Reginald Hudli.
Kaepernick took the stage on Sunday to accept the award to thunderous applause, raising his right fist to the crowd.
Kaepernick took the stage to thunderous applause on Sunday in Beverly Hills, raising his right fist to the crowd while accepting the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award
Kaepernick (seen right last season) was the first football player to kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. The protest has spread, drawing criticism and praise
‘We all have an obligation no matter the risk, and regardless of reward, to stand up for our fellow men and women who are being oppressed with the understanding that human rights cannot be comprised,’ Kaepernick said as he accepted the award.
The award is named for Eason Monroe, a faculty member at San Francisco State University who was fired in 1950 when he refused to sign the University of California system’s loyalty oath.
Kaepernick, who was the first football player to kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, remains an unsigned free agent after opting out of his contract with the 49ers in March.
He has filed a lawsuit against the NFL, accusing all 32 owners of conspiring to prevent him from returning to the league.
‘He has lost his job, one that he loved and was supremely talented and skilled at,’ Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, told the audience at Sunday’s event.
‘We all have an obligation no matter the risk, and regardless of reward, to stand up for our fellow men and women who are being oppressed,’ Kaepernick said as he accepted the award
Kaepernick has turned to philanthropy in his free agency, pledging to donate $1million to ‘organizations working in oppressed communities’.
His protest during the national anthem has spread around the league in his absence, drawing criticism alongside the praise.
‘The NFL should have suspended him for one game and he would have never done it again,’ President Donald Trump told Fox News in October.
‘They could have then suspended him for two games and they could have suspended him again if he did it a third time, for the season, and you would never have had a problem.’
Kaepernick’s latest accolade follows GQ Magazine naming him Citizen of the Year last month.
Just hours after receiving the ACLU award, Kaepernick was announced as one of ten finalists for Time’s Person of the Year award.
Kaepernick will take the stage again on Tuesday at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Award Show in New York to receive the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award.