Black History

Overlooked History Made at NCAA Final Four

THE TENNESSEE TRIBUNE — There was some overlooked history made at this year’s NCAA Final Four. It wasn’t just that Virginia finally won an NCAA men’s title, or that they went from being the first number one seed to lose to a 16th seed one season and then the next year become a champion. No, the real history came at the top of the ladder for the respective schools. Both Virginia and Auburn, who played a thrilling one-point semifinal game decided on a controversial call, had Black athletic directors.

Published

4 years ago

April 24, 2019

Ron Wynn

By Ron Wynn

There was some overlooked history made at this year’s NCAA Final Four. It wasn’t just that Virginia finally won an NCAA men’s title, or that they went from being the first number one seed to lose to a 16th seed one season and then the next year become a champion. No, the real history came at the top of the ladder for the respective schools. Both Virginia and Auburn, who played a thrilling one-point semifinal game decided on a controversial call, had Black athletic directors.

Allen Greene is Auburn’s AD. Carla Williams is Virginia’s, and she became the first Black woman to preside over an NCAA men’s basketball champion. The NCAA should have been advertising that news all over the place, because otherwise things don’t look very good for them when it comes to diversity and inclusion, even in a sport with as many Black players as basketball.

There are ZERO Black head coaches in both the Big Ten and Pac 12. There are two in the Big 12 and SEC, with Vanderbilt’s hiring of Jerry Stackhouse being the reason for that. The ACC leads all Power conferences with three. The numbers are even worse when it comes to Black women head coaches.

There are ZERO in the Big 12. A grand total of ONE in the ACC, the Big Ten and Pac-12. The SEC has everyone beat on this end with four. There is general agreement that these numbers are abysmal in 2019, but there’s no consensus about what can be done to improve them. Kentucky’s John Calipari told ESPN’s The Undefeated website that more top white coaches were going to have to stand up and be counted on this issue for things to change.

“We don’t have enough guys who are willing to stand up and say stuff that needs to be said,” Calipari said. NCAA president Mark Emmert added his voice to that sentiment, saying, “I think those folks (influential white head coaches) can have a huge impact. If you’ve got candidates out there, men of color, let’s say, going after men’s basketball positions and a coach of the stature of Tom (Izzo) or Cal or any of those guys are willing to give them a seal of approval, saying, ‘You know. you hire this guy, I promise you, you’re going to have a good coach. You will have no regrets,’ that screws up somebody’s courage a lot. They have a lot of stroke in this process if they chose to exercise it.”

But another factor that must be added is the lack of Black athletic directors at Power conferences. Currently there are just 10. It is no accident that with Malcolm Turner at Vanderbilt the school has Blacks as both head football and basketball coaches. Turner has already twice gone against conventional wisdom in giving Derek Mason an extension and hiring an unproven person in Jerry Stackhouse, at least on the college level, rather than just another retread person.

You never know, but it’s doubtful a white AD would have made either of those hiring decisions at Vanderbilt. Unfortunately, that’s still the case too often at many colleges and universities.

This article originally appeared in The Tennessee Tribune.

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Black History

Remembering the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

The “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” brought an unprecedented throng to the National Mall on Aug. 28, 1963. From every corner of the U.S., marchers came to demand fair wages, economic justice, an end to segregation, voting rights and long overdue civil rights. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his incomparable “I Have a Dream” speech on that day.

Published

17 hours ago

September 27, 2023

Oakland Post

March on Washington, August 1963

By Gay Elizabeth Plair Cobb

Gay Plair Cobb

Editor’s note: The “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” brought an unprecedented throng to the National Mall on Aug. 28, 1963. From every corner of the U.S., marchers came to demand fair wages, economic justice, an end to segregation, voting rights and long overdue civil rights. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his incomparable “I Have a Dream” speech on that day. Below, Gay Plair Cobb shares her remembrance.

“Sleepy eyed, joining the early morning-chartered bus ride from New York City to Washington, DC … exhilarated, but not knowing what to expect in the late August heat

…. the yearning for justice, solidarity with others on the journey, the possibility of new legislation, and also the possibility of violence … We just did not know.

In the end, there were an amazing 250,000 of us, awed and inspired by Mahalia Jackson, John Lewis, Dorothy Height, James Farmer and, of course, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Dream that became our North Star is still our North Star 60 years later and into eternity. Grateful to have been a foot soldier then. Still grateful now.”

Poster for March on Washington.

Black History

Guy Bluford: First African American in Space

Following Sally Ride (America’s first female astronaut) by just two months, Guy Bluford’s spaceflight aboard Space Shuttle Challenger provided another visible moment when more young people could see and be inspired by people like themselves flying into space. Bluford served as a mission specialist on the STS-8 mission and his jobs were to deploy an Indian communications-weather satellite, perform biomedical experiments and test the orbiter’s 50-foot robotic arm.

Published

1 day ago

September 27, 2023

Oakland Post

Dr. Col. Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. Image courtesy of NASA.

By Jennifer Levasseur, Vickie Lindsey, and Amy Stamm

Forty years ago, on Aug. 30, 1983, Guy Bluford flew into history as the first Black American in space.

Despite launch delays totaling six weeks, the spectacular first night launch of a Space Shuttle brought full circle NASA’s promise of a more inclusive astronaut corps.

Following Sally Ride (America’s first female astronaut) by just two months, Bluford’s spaceflight aboard Space Shuttle Challenger provided another visible moment when more young people could see and be inspired by people like themselves flying into space.

Bluford served as a mission specialist on the STS-8 mission and his jobs were to deploy an Indian communications-weather satellite, perform biomedical experiments and test the orbiter’s 50-foot robotic arm.

Following that first mission, he flew three more times to space on STS-61A, STS-39, and STS-53. By the time of his retirement from NASA in 1993, Bluford had spent more than 28 days in space over the four missions.

At the time of his first mission, Bluford was a 40-year-old Air Force officer with a doctorate in aerospace engineering.

Reluctant to be in the spotlight, his goal was not to make history, but fly into space, do his job, and return safely.

Growing up in a middle-class household in the 1950s and 1960s with educated parents (his mother was a teacher, and his father was a mechanical engineer), Bluford was raised to believe that he could do anything he wanted despite racist social restrictions.

He enjoyed math and science, particularly in school. Ignoring the advice of his high school advisor to learn a trade or skill, Bluford went on to college to earn his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at Penn State University in 1964, also finishing as a distinguished Air Force ROTC graduate.

After his decades of service to the aerospace community in a variety of roles, having spoken dozens of times about his astronaut career and work in aviation, Dr. Guion Bluford was recently appointed by President Joseph Biden as a member of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Advisory Board.

Editor’s note: Jennifer Levasseur, Vickie Lindsey and Amy Stamm are writers for a NASA blog