Full Description
This chronicle of sports at West Virginia's 40 black high schools and three black colleges illuminates many issues in race relations and the struggle for social justice within the state and nation. Despite having inadequate resources, the black schools' sports teams thrived during segregation and helped tie the state's scattered black communities together. West Virginia hosted the nation's first state-wide black high school basketball tournament, which flourished for 33 years, and both Bluefield State and West Virginia State won athletic championships in the prestigious Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association). Black schools were gradually closed after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the desegregation of schools in West Virginia was an important step toward equality. For black athletes and their communities, the path to inclusion came with many costs.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction by Bob Barnett
Part I. School and College Segregation in West Virginia, 1863-1954
1. African Americans in West Virginia, 1860-1969
2. Intercollegiate Sports in the Black Colleges, 1900-1954
3. The First Black State High School Basketball Tournament in the United States, 1925-1944
4. Earl Lloyd and the Golden Age of West Virginia State University Basketball, 1945-1954
5. The Legacy of Black High School Basketball
Part II. The Integration of West Virginia's High Schools and Colleges, 1954-1964
6. Integrating Small Colleges
7. From Hal Greer to Randy Moss: The Integration of Marshall University Sports
8. Two Historically Black Colleges Join the White Intercollegiate Conference
9. Black High Schools in the White Basketball Tournament, 1957-1969
10. From Dick Leftridge to Major Harris: A Call for Sports Advocacy at WVU
Epilogue
Appendix: Pioneers in the Integration of College Sports in West Virginia
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
