The mayor of Durham, North Carolina, praised a ten-year-old Cub Scout for taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance at a recent city council meeting.

Cub Scout Pack 451 was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance during Monday’s city council meeting, but instead of standing in honor of the country, one of the scouts, Liam Holmes, decided to mimic former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, and take a knee.

“What I did was took a knee against racial discrimination, which is basically when people are mean to other people of different colors,” the child told CBS Channel 17-TV.

The child’s father planned the display ahead of the event and told the local CBS affiliate that he was not sure if the boy would follow through with the act after they discussed it ahead of time.

“When he did it I was really surprised and also really proud of him,” the boy’s father said.

“No one saw it except the people that were watching. And the mayor noticed, and he thanked me,” the boy said afterward.

Indeed, at the conclusion of the pledge, Mayor Steve Schewel gushed about Liam’s act of defiance.

“Thank you, councilman, and thank you, scouts. To the scout that expressed his conscience by kneeling, we will say we endorse and appreciate all expressions of conscience in Durham City Council,” Schewel said.

The Boy Scouts of America replied to queries from Channel 17 saying only that it “teaches its youth members to respect the views of others.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.