Satchel Paige, The Star That Too Few Got To See Shine

Happy birthday to Satchel Paige, born on July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Alabama. He was one of the most dominant and exciting pitchers in baseball history, unfortunately, he did not make his major league debut until the age of 42. For 24 years, Paige dazzled the semi pro leagues, exhibition games, and the Negro leagues. […]

James Meredith: A Soldier For America Inside of It

Happy 86th birthday to James Meredith. A living American hero whose story should be known. He grew up in Mississippi, only allowed to go to all-black schools. When he graduated, he joined the Air Force and served in it from 1951-1960. This in itself fascinates me. How could a person volunteer to fight and possibly […]

June 11, 1963: A Decade in One Day

56 years ago today, June 11, 1963 was a monumental one in the American civil rights movement. It is the type of day that entire novels are written about, as it personifies the triumph and the tragedy of the 1960’s. That morning, two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, arrived at the University […]

Bloody Sunday: The Worst and Best of America

Today marks the 54th anniversary of one of the best and worst moments of American history, “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama. Worst in the sense that it shows how incredibly mean and stupid some people could be, and best in showing the bravery and toughness to overcome that stupidity. Even though the right to vote […]

Marian Anderson: The Talent of a Generation We Almost Missed Out On

122 years ago today, Marian Anderson, the grandchild of a slave, was born in Philadelphia. She was so beautifully talented as a singer that Arturo Toscanini once called her “the talent of a generation”. In her life she would find herself at one of the most important crossroads of art, politics, and humanity in American […]

The Long and Slow Road To Justice in Mississippi

25 years ago today, February 5, 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Evers was killed on June 12, 1963. It was a seminal moment in the American civil rights movement. Evers was born in 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi. When he was fourteen, Evers witnessed […]

Pushing Through the Mountain

On what would have been his 90th birthday, I find myself reflecting upon my last visit to the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington D.C. a few years ago. The monument, the man, and the Movement are too often misunderstood. The monument fittingly shows him to emerge from a mountain. The mountain represents the […]

Branch Rickey: A Man Who Made America and Baseball Better

On this date in 1881, one of the most impactful men in the 20th century and baseball history was born: Branch Rickey. Most Americans know him as the man who signed Jackie Robinson, thereby integrating Major League Baseball and providing an essential catalyst for the civil rights movement that was finding momentum far too slowly […]

When Jesse Owens Brought Baseball to Portland

Today is the birthday of one of the most important athletes of all time, Jesse Owens. His story is an incredible one, with an interesting baseball twist that not many people know. Jesse Owens was the grandson of a slave who grew up in rural Alabama picking ten pounds of cotton a day. When he […]

60 Years Ago Today: The Little Rock Nine, and a Heroic White Woman.

On this date in 1957, nine courageous teenagers tried to enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Supreme Court had issued the monumental “Brown Vs. Board of Education” ruling 3 years earlier, making segregation in schools illegal, yet schools in the south had not yet integrated. Groups like the KKK made what would […]