West Point is investigating a photograph showing 16 female cadets posing with their fists raised outside a US Military Academy barracks, the Army Times reports.

A raised fist is a gesture that has been associated with political movements for centuries. Suffragettes, union activists, and civil-rights activists have all marched with and displayed raised fists. The Black Panthers, a black-power group in the 1960s, also adopted it, and more recently the gesture has become part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The political history of the gesture, as well as the perceived race of the cadets, has moved some to argue that the photo violates Department of Defense Directive 1344.10, Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces.

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