NFL legend John Wooten warns that America is moving backwards
Former NFL guard John Wooten spoke about his experiences as a young man living through the civil rights movement and offered a warning to Americans today.
In an interview with USA Today, former NFL guard John Wooten offered some perspective on the America he grew up in versus the America we’re living in today. At 88 years old, Wooten has experienced many versions of the United States, and until now, he viewed the country as progressing forward.
John Wooten’s warning to America
Wooten was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1959, joining veteran running back and civil rights activist Jim Brown. Five years later, 1964 was an important year in America. Just days before Wooten reported to the Browns’ training camp that summer, U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, and Wooten was in the White House when it happened.
The law ended segregation in public places and schools and banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, among other things. Wooten was personally invited to come to the White House because of his social efforts with the Negro Industrial Economic Union, and thus was in the building when the historic law took effect.
“This was the beginning of us being able to move forward as a people in this country,” Wooten told USA Today. “Now it’s the law of the land. I can’t tell you how privileged I was – not as a football player, but as a young Black guy – to be there. It gave us a completely new look on life as a people.”
Throughout his time in the NFL, Wooten made an impact not only on the game, but as a champion for equal opportunity as well. He served many years as the chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an advocacy group working with the NFL in hiring minorities as coaches and executives.
A year before that law was signed, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Jim Brown asked then coach Blanton Collier to reschedule the Browns' practice that day so they could watch it in their hotel room.
“We invited everybody, Black and white, to sit there and watch,” said Wooten, who was rooming with Brown in the hotel at the time. “We had guys on the floor, on the beds, watching this together.”
After having lived through such historic progress in America, Wooten is worried that the country is now moving backwards. As president Donald Trump’s administration works to get rid of all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, Wooten warns that they may undo all of the progress made in the past.
“It hurts your heart,” Wooten said. “We had come so far in terms of moving this country in the right direction. DEI, all of that, has come from the Civil Rights Act. It was what we stood for as a nation.”
Project 2025, the conservative’s list of proposals for Trump’s administration, is already becoming a reality in many ways, one of them being the end to DEI practices. Wooten voiced his concern for what this means for the future of the United States.
“When you read through [Project 2025], you see immediately that it would destroy every single thing we have worked for and won in this country.”
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