Perry Wallace was born at an historic crossroads in U.S. history. He entered kindergarten the year that the Brown v. Board of Education decision led to integrated schools, allowing blacks and whites to learn side by side. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, Wallace enrolled in high school and his sensational jumping, dunking, and rebounding abilities quickly earned him the attention of college basketball recruiters from top schools across the nation. In his senior year his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first racially-integrated state tournament. The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt University recruited Wallace to play basketball, he courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the Southeastern Conference. The hateful experiences he would endure on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be the stuff of nightmares. Yet Wallace persisted, endured, and met this unthinkable challenge head on. This insightful biography digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a complicated, profound, and inspiring story of an athlete turned civil rights trailblazer.
year: 2017, 2018
call number/section: 921, 920, 92, 796.32, 1000
subjects: wallace, perry, (law professor), juvenile literature, vanderbilt commodores (basketball team), history, juvenile literature, vanderbilt university, african american basketball players, united states, juvenile literature, african american college students, civil rights, southern states, history, 20th century, racism in sports, biography, racism, southern states, race relations, juvenile literature, basketball players, sports, biographies
Editions
Maraniss, Andrew
Philomel Books (2017)
Perry Wallace was born at an historic crossroads in U.S. history. He entered kindergarten the year that the Brown v. Board of Education decision led to integrated schools, allowing blacks and whites to learn side by side. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, Wallace enrolled in high school and his sensational jumping, dunking, and rebounding abilities quickly earned him the attention of college basketball recruiters from top schools across the nation. In his senior year his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first racially-integrated state tournament. The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt University recruited Wallace to play basketball, he courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the Southeastern Conference. The hateful experiences he would endure on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be the stuff of nightmares. Yet Wallace persisted, endured, and met this unthinkable challenge head on. This insightful biography digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a complicated, profound, and inspiring story of an athlete turned civil rights trailblazer.
Schools: 26
Maraniss, Andrew
Puffin Books (2018)
" ... the ... story of Perry Wallace, a ... student and talented athlete who became the first African-American basketball player in the SEC at Vanderbilt University during the tumultuous late 1960s ... Places Wallace's struggles and ultimate success into the larger contexts of civil rights and race relations in the South"--Provided by publisher.
Schools: 5