A protest in Trump Country brings home nation's race divides

ROWLAND, N.C. — They put down their pompoms and lined up along the football field behind their tiny high school in their tiny town.

Their classmates marched the American flag onto the field. "The Star-Spangled Banner" began, and six teenage girls with blue bows in their hair each dropped to one knee.

They had for days been quietly planning this protest, against discrimination and police brutality but also against the nation's ratcheting racial tensions, against those white supremacists they'd seen on television with torches in a city not so far away. They had agreed in the moments before that they were ready to accept the consequences, and braced for the response. 6

No one booed. No one applauded them, either. No television cameras zoomed in for a close-up. As the anthem ended, some of them wondered if anyone had noticed at all. They got to their feet and launched their first cheer.

"Go Mustangs!"

By morning, however, the culture wars splintering the nation would land here in miniature — in the most racially diverse rural county in America, a community so small a sign welcomes visitors to the "town of 1,000 friends."

A parent from the away team had snapped a photo. Out it went onto social media. In poured calls for the girls to be punished, their principal fired.

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http://www.wral.com/a-protest-in-trump-country-brings-home-nation-s-race-divides/17154326/