Cam Newton Wears Martin Luther King Jr. Quote on Shirt Before Vikings v Panthers

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton wore a shirt featuring a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. prior to Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings. 

Jeremy Igo of CarolinaHuddle.com shared a photo of the shirt:

The quote comes from King's famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." He penned the letter after being arrested during a demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama:

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Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

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Given many leagues' stringent uniform codes, athletes have recently used pregame warm-ups to make social statements.

Various NBA stars wore shirts saying "I can't breathe" following the July 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of New York police officers.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

In July, members of the Minnesota Lynx wore shirts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, courtesy of the team's Twitter account:

To date, Newton isn't among those following the lead of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who continues to take a knee during the national anthem to raise awareness for social issues, including police violence. The reigning MVP posted a photo on Instagram supporting Kaepernick's protest.

FoxSports.com's Nick Schwartz provided the full text from Newton's caption:

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I salute my brother @kaepernick7 for making a stand for injustice in this country but... the real problem is and will always be the people and how we treat one another! I see a lot of memes and even articles about CamvsKap, are they OK? But the truth is we are good and will always be good. We all are different and have the right to fill anyway we want to... and I salute him for standing (in this case kneeling) for something to if not fix the issue, raise awareness of the issue.

I'm an African-American that's black and proud to the day I die and I try to make an impact in my community as much as I can. How are you making a difference? But it all goes for nothing if we all don't police ourselves and love one another no matter what the race is! We all have to do better and be held accountable for our actions (police included)... I'm not here to talk about race I'm here to talk about what's right!!! And we all have to do what's right no matter the race, age or gender.

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In his press conference Wednesday, Newton addressed the topic of police violence, per Sports Illustrated's Jonathan Jones:

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I’m an African-American. I am not happy how the justice has been kind of dealt with over the years. The state of oppression in our community. But we also, as black people, have to do right by ourselves. We can’t be hypocrites.

I say that on one voice but also on another voice that when you go public or when things happen in the community, it’s not the fact that things are happening.  It’s the way they’re being treated after they’re happening. When you get a person that does some unjust things or killing an innocent person, killing fathers, killing people who have actual families. That’s real.

I have a son and a daughter that I’m responsible for. So how would I be if one day they come home and there’s no more daddy?

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Over the last few days, Charlotte, North Carolina, has been the scene of protests following the death of Keith Lamont Scott. Officers from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shot Scott while they were serving a warrant.