NAACP: Some players at River Valley High didn't want to participate in "slave auction" video
SACRAMENTO – What happened between some River Valley High School football players inside a locker room?
"In one of the instances, one of the young men ran to go out the door and they blocked him," said Betty Williams, president of the Greater Sacramento NAACP. "Every single one of them said, 'No' in the beginning...100 percent of them said, 'No' in the beginning."
In a one-on-one interview with CBS13, Williams explains all of the Black football players at the Yuba City school wanted nothing to do with the mock slave auction recording. The viral video shows several Black students in their underwear. But the civil rights group says the boys weren't willing participants.
Instead, some of the players it spoke to said they just wanted to get on the field for football practice.
"They didn't want to be late," Williams said. "So, they were trying to get out to the field, get this thing over with and go."
CBS13 reached out to the Yuba City Unified School District for an interview request. However, they could not be reached for comment.
The district said it already pulled several football players out for the season.
As for why the players are speaking now?
"It's important that the community hears their voices and sees them as students – human beings – that made a stupid mistake," she said.
