NOTICE: This event has been POSTPONED due to inclement weather affecting travel schedules. Check back for a new date, possibly in April 2014.
LEXINGTON, Ky.—One who helped make it happen; two who experienced it; and one who chronicled this pivotal moment in the American story. The panel assembled to discuss “Integrating Athletics at Transylvania and Beyond” will bring poignant personal accounts to the Feb. 13 installment of the year-long celebration of Transylvania’s 50th year of desegregation, titled Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness.
It was in the racially charged 1960s when these men together and as courageous individuals broke down the barriers of segregation in collegiate sports.
With award-winning sportswriter Billy Reed moderating, hear the stories of former Transylvania and Alabama coach and former UK Athletics Director C.M. Newton; Transylvania basketball star Jim Hurley ’69; and Wendell Hudson, the first African American scholarship student-athlete at the University of Alabama and the 1973 SEC Player of the Year.
“Every day there was a reason for me to quit,” Hudson said in the video documentary “Stepping Through: A look at the past 50 years of desegregation at The University of Alabama.” “Every day my freshman year here, every day there was a reason for me not to be successful or to give up and to let that defeat me. And when I talk to young people, like, that’s no excuse, because, you know, everybody’s going to have a story…and it’s going to be a long way from always [being] treated right, but that’s still no excuse to not try your best.”
Now, in 2014, these men will bring thoughtful perspectives to the issues of race and ethnicity that they have strived to overcome and help illuminate issues still lingering in American society.
It promises to be a rare and important moment in our conversation about racial equality and justice.
Integrating Athletics at Transylvania and Beyond
Thursday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.
Haggin Auditorium
Mitchell Fine Arts Center
Transylvania University
West Fourth Street between North Broadway and North Upper
Free and open to the public
Reception following to meet the panelists
Free parking in lots adjacent to the building