A Whistle from Midcourt

This chapter tells the story of the controversial final minutes of Lincoln's state tournament game that began in chapter 1. Lincoln led Owensboro by 5 points with five minutes to play when Gilliard ordered his players to freeze the ball in order to protect the lead. The strategy failed, and Lincoln trailed by 2 points with eleven seconds remaining. Jewell Logan scored what would have been the tying basket and was fouled as time expired, but the referee at midcourt called Logan for walking, and Lincoln lost the game. Logan fielded reporters' questions with dignity, a trait that Young had worked to instill in his students. Flaget won the tournament, and McGill, chosen for the all-tournament team, became the first African American to start for a KHSAA champion. But he still couldn't play tennis at the Louisville Boat Club because of his color.

A “Progressive and Enlightened” State

This chapter discusses Kentucky's progress through “gradual integration,” which Governor A. B. “Happy” Chandler cited as proof of his “progressive and enlightened” state. Gilliard believed his 1959–1960 team had a chance to be special, but he was not convinced until the Tigers dominated a scrimmage against Louisville Central, a team that would be ranked number one in the state. All athletic competition between the two schools had been suspended after a huge fight among fans after a football game in 1955, but the Lincoln players hoped to meet Central again in the tournament. One Central senior who watched the scrimmage was Cassius Clay, who would win a gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Olympics. Lincoln lost one early game and then took off on a winning streak, despite prejudiced refereeing from white officials when playing all-white teams. Gilliard cautioned his players to get used to questionable officiating, catcalls from fans, and racial slurs from white players.

“Janitorial Engineering”

This chapter discusses Lincoln's growth and development as the state's only boarding high school for African American students. In 1938 the state legislature passed a bill requiring counties that lacked accommodations for black students to pay their tuition and send them to accredited high schools elsewhere. The bill solved a problem for local school districts that had neither the funds nor the inclination to educate black children. Lincoln Institute was a logical destination for such students, and it became a state-funded institution. Young still had to maneuver through prevailing racist attitudes, such as the state's objection to his plan to add an electrical engineering program. Only after he renamed the program “janitorial engineering” did he gain approval. Young's efforts strongly influenced his own children, Arnita, Eleanor, and Whitney Jr., into lives of service. This chapter also introduces John Norman Cunningham, a Lincoln student whose experiences are woven through the narrative.

Introduction

The US Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education prohibited segregation in public schools, correcting a century of injustice and unequal education experienced by generations of young African Americans. But such a necessary correction resounded well beyond its intent, triggering consequences that altered cherished institutions in black communities throughout the country. Few were affected more than the strong tradition of high school basketball, and nowhere was that transformation more graphic than in hoops-mad Kentucky....

Secret Ballot

This chapter describes how Louisville interests tried to persuade the KHSAA board to return the state high school basketball tournament to Louisville, over the objections of Lexington supporters. Louisville experienced racial unrest after African Americans boycotted a local movie theater that refused to admit blacks to a showing of Porgy and Bess, which featured an all-black cast. For this and other reasons, Lexington was the preferred site for the state tournament, and it took a secret vote of KHSAA board members to return the event to Louisville. The Lincoln players were hoping for a rematch with Louisville Central, but the Yellowjackets were upset in the regional tournament by Flaget High School. Flaget's African American point guard John McGill was also an outstanding tennis player who had spent the previous summer traveling as Arthur Ashe's doubles partner.

Out of the Ruins

This chapter describes Lincoln Institute's run through the Thirtieth District and the challenges it faced in the Eighth Region tournament. Lincoln defeated powerful Oldham County on a last-second shot by Crayton and then breezed to an 85–64 victory in the title game against Carrollton High School. But racism reared its ugly head when Carrollton's players and fans came out onto the floor and refused to let the Lincoln players cut down the nets, a customary practice for the winning team. Two police officers stood by and did nothing as a near riot ensued between the Carrollton fans and the Lincoln supporters, many of whom were white fans from Shelby County. The Carrollton team was suspended and placed on probation by the KHSAA for its actions, and the Homeless Tigers headed to the state tournament.

An Accepted Way of Life

This chapter discusses the 1958–1959 basketball season, when Lincoln Institute's chief rivals were no longer African American schools but local white schools in its KHSAA district. Gilliard was optimistic because of some new additions to the team, such as John Kavanaugh Cunningham, Clyde Mosby, and William Crayton from Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, where future Hall of Famer and Olympic champion Oscar Robertson had played. Crayton's past was something of a mystery, but he was a great player who had problems controlling his temper. Cunningham lived with his single mother and two sisters in a house without electricity or running water, but he was determined to become the first in his family to graduate from high school. Lincoln started the season slowly but finished strong, winning the Thirtieth District tournament for the first time but losing in the regional championship game to an all-white team that had never played against blacks before.

“A World Uncertain”

This chapter discusses Gilliard's plan to build his 1957–1958 team around a group of talented sophomores that included Ben Spalding, Jewell Logan, and John Watkins. Gilliard's innovative coaching methods included having his guards wear cotton gloves in practice to improve their ball-handling skills, while his big men practiced in rubber galoshes to improve their jumping ability. The first game in Shelby County between whites and blacks occurred on November 22, 1957, when Bagdad defeated Lincoln, 47–40. Bagdad's Thurman became a popular source of information for his fellow coaches, most of whom had never played against black teams. In 1958 thirty-eight African American schools participated in twenty-nine of the sixty-four district tournaments and compiled a respectable 34–30 record while winning six district titles. Three district winners won their regional tournaments and became the first all-black teams to participate in the KHSAA “Sweet Sixteen.”

“Inherently Unequal”

This chapter discusses the US Supreme Court's decision to prohibit segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education. Principals and coaches at KHSAL member schools realized that the decision could undermine their very existence, and talk of desegregation raised a litany of questions: When will it happen? Will black schools now play white schools? Will black schools be closed immediately? These questions were frightening in places where segregation was the only law the people had ever known. But the future was clear to Whitney Young, who told his faculty and students: “Segregation created Lincoln Institute. Integration will destroy it.” Meanwhile, the Lincoln basketball team, behind John Cunningham, won the 1955 KHSAL state championship.

Prejudice versus Common Sense

This chapter traces the history of segregated education in Kentucky by focusing on Berea College, which enrolled African American students shortly after the Civil War. After a state legislator visited the campus in 1904 and saw black and white students living together, he pushed a bill through the state legislature banning white students and students of color from attending the same school. The Berea governing board responded by establishing a school in Simpsonville, Kentucky, for the education of young African Americans: Lincoln Institute. The curriculum was based on Booker T. Washington's view that vocational education was the key to black advancement, although W. E. B. DuBois argued that educating black students in subjects such as humanities, mathematics, and science would achieve both political and economic progress.