Spike Lee: ‘A Lot of the Stuff’ Black People Have Accomplished Has ‘Been Through Sports’

Friday on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike,” director Spike Lee discussed his movie “2 Fists Up,” which can be seen on ESPN’s The Undefeated. The movie goes in-depth on last November’s boycott by University of Missouri’s football players over the Concerned Student 1950 movement.

According to Lee, sports have been “huge” for African-Americans.

“When you talk about African-Americans, a lot of the stuff we’ve done has been through sports, even Dr. King talked about the impact of Jackie Robinson. You can talk about Muhammad Ali, we can talk about my guys here, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, 1968 olympics. Two fists up. So, sports is huge. And think about it. Jonathan Butler went on a seven-day hunger strike and he was committed to this. He was going to die. He said if Tim Wolfe was not fired or resigned as head of Mizzou, he was willing to die. And the football team heard this and they came in,” Lee explained.