Civil Rights, College Football And The Season That Changed It All

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition, I am Maureen Cavanaugh. Recently All-American defensive lineman from Missouri, Michael sent eight headlines by announcing that he is gay. If he is drafted to play in the NFL he will be the first openly gay player in professional football. That announcement is just the latest in a long evolution of football in America. One of the most significant changes in the game is now the subject of a book by New York Times columnist Samuel G Freedman. His book is called taking the line, the season in black college football, that transformed the game and change the course of civil rights. Professor Friedman is a guest of the annual Symposium by the Sea. Welcome to the show. Now, for many of the students that you're going to be speaking to a point Loma, will be almost impossible for them to imagine a time when black and white athletes did not play the ball together, but your book shows it really was not all that long ago. SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN: We're only talking about five years ago and earlier than that, in fact college football which is why focus on in this deep South, years of segregation was one of the most segregated parts of society and that was done by accident. Those tailings we did not have go baseball and the South that you had hardly any pro football, college football was a huge part of the regional culture, almost a religion. It was so important to the white supremacists of the South that even after schools like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, they kept there for both teams all white for many teams years to come. The ideas that all of these all white teams could win and go to to the top ten and as white supremacy Lindon, the struggle against that was undertaken by the HBCUs teams, historical black colleges and universities, but you I really MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And you also focus of the year 1967, will be that the tape is pivotal year the integration of football? SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN: You have and sixty-seven the overall civil rights crime and this country is in one of those points where things could go for the better or really pitch into the abyss, sixty-seven is Marshall's name into the supreme court by a president Johnson and crossover of popular culture, and also the year of the despair of the slowly slow pace of change of the slow hot summer and in football terms 1957 is the year with these two teams that a focus on are each doing some thing they can be transformative for the ball and are society, doing it at the same time and play each other for black college championship, and Grambling the quarterback James Harris and his pro-curve by the charges, he had to be the first black quarterback to successfully play this position in the NFL. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: He's been called the Jackie Robinson of football. SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN: He is and he should be more widely known and Jackie Robinson had to prove that he was physically capable of and could turn into the hold up to the pressure of racism, and football had to do both of those things plus one other, being a quarterback needs being the smartest person in any sport, it's the most herbal position I believe, is the leaders of the attitudes during segregated times in society, attitudes are enormous as well, the blacks were not as smart as white, the blacks should just take orders, those attitudes and everything to do white or black and not been allowed to play a quarterback in NFL, what James Harrison and Eddie Robinson knew is that ultimately going from Grambling into the process, you'd have to do so much more than just physical capabilities, he would have to show that he was smart enough and be the leader, the show could stand up to an unbearable amount of race hate, that is going on at Grambling, this is James Harrison's breakthrough college season in 1967 and meanwhile at Florida A&M in and they had a coach who has been through literally decades going behind the scene with Florida's readers, often segregation, building of favors, but not eating up front on civil rights, and people around Florida A&M which had a active Florida writes move civil rights movement, and when they wondered why he was so quiet, he needed permission from the state state to play the first ever football game of the black college team against as white college team, and integrated team, and no game like that ever happened to the south and he knew because of the importance of football and culture in the South if you could play that game it was going to move things rapidly forward towards desegregating society MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And football is as you say the most popular support in America, does it follow there for the changes in the game and changes of that member that nature in the game automatically felt larger society? SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN: Absolutely that way, sports in general and a 6 foot tall in this country even more so in the South had to have a disproportionate impact than you can say arguably this too much or too little, and sometimes you can see this for the bad, also means it can be for the good, and if you think about the fact that 1967 was thirteen years after Congress is bored, Brown versus Board, public facility facilities were desegregated by the Civil Rights Act of sixty-four, most of them are still segregated and the effect of football was to urge progress in these other areas, really compelled movement and a breakthrough of some black players like James Harrison rally the great cornerback of Florida A&M and you let coaches to previously all-white schools to finally recruited African-American athletes. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What more does for Bobby to do to finish the job began by James Harris? SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN: I will say a couple things, you are apt to bring up Michael Sam, at the start. I think what James Harris went through going into the pros is parallel to it Michael Sam is facing now. The skepticism that he is going to go up against but also the hopes that are invested in him. And so, if he is able to make it in his most masculine sports, business agreeable sport but is also a contact sport, that is going to say something I think the larger society about gay men, and about manhood, and that is the next chapter for a lot of us. We look at the issue of gay rights and looked this is the frontier of civil rights in this generation, and what Michael Sam is doing is really continuation of the processes in terms of racial desegregation in James Harris's Park, I think another piece is college football in the process we had nine starting black quarterbacks in the NFL and their been a number of like coaches and black general managers, but the colleges have been very slow to hire talented African-Americans as athletic directors, it way behind the approach, weight behind the professionals, and they had a plan: removal, and the colleges need to step up. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: But go I want to let everyone know that he will be speaking tonight at seven at point Loma writers by the sea, the next book is called taking the light, season in the college football that transform the J game and transformed civil rights. Thank you for speaking with us so much.