History

152 posts

Black History Month, Athlete Week: Flying v. Walking

Twentieth century sports history is peppered with, “the first black person to…” stories. From Satchel Paige, to Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Polllard, to Jack Johnson, and of course all of the ladies mentioned this week. If you venture beyond black history, you’ll find dozens of more firsts and more waiting to happen.

These stories are heartwarming. They give hope to the kids training and dreaming on run down equipment. They are a source of optimism for the adults who continue to fight their own daily struggles. But these stories should also inspire reflection. Continue reading →

Black History Month, Athlete Week: Debi Thomas


The 1980s was a huge decade for black women. Angela Davis made her first Vice Presidential run in 1980. In 1982, Alice Walker was the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple. Toni Morrison doubled down on the ass kicking when she won the Nobel Prize for literature later that year. On the opposite, but no less notable end of the achievement spectrum, Vanessa Williams was the first black woman to win the Miss America pageant, in 1984, and the first black woman to turn a public nudity and over-blown, puritanical rage incident into a hit record and successful acting career. Ah! The infancy of equality!

Returning to sports, one of the most notable people of this decade was groundbreaking, world champion, figure skater Debi Thomas. Continue reading →

Introducing the MLK Day of Sale

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some of us may ponder what his legacy to our country and by extension our world should be. How do we honor a man who is more than a figure of the civil rights movement, and an advocate for nonviolence, but a symbol of racial discourse in this country and around the world whose impact transcends the era in which he lived, and to that end, an observance of who we should strive to be in the way in which we respect, honor, and treat each other domestically and globally?

Should we honor him and his message within the sale pages of our local retailer? Continue reading →