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Four years after Kaepernick kneeled, a look at Bay Area sports leaders who stood before him

Long before this tumultuous moment in American history where sports figures are using their powerful platforms to demand change, well before Colin Kaepernick quietly refused to stand for the national anthem, there were changemakers in the world of sports.

And not surprisingly, given its role in the civil rights movement, the Bay Area has long been an epicenter for sports activism.

The raised, black-gloved fists of Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, nearly a half century b. . .