32 Minutes of Greatness

During the mid-sixties, when Black people in this country were struggling for equal rights and justice under the constitution, we were being denied our God given rights as human beings and productive citizens of a nation that we helped build and become a super power. We were constantly locked out of the benefits that white people enjoyed under the constitution. Every day our character, our intelligence and moral fiber was grossly scrutinized. Because of hatred and ignorance, our people were being treated badly throughout a nation full of prejudice. Our school systems were segregated. In our schools we did not have Black history studies in our class rooms. We were not taught about the many contributions and accomplishments made by blacks in the field of medicine , math and science. Black people could not live in certain parts of the cities without fear of reprisals. There were signs that read for whites only and for colored only. We were barred from restaurants and there were separate restrooms and water fountains that were off limits to blacks. There was wide spread segregation in the state of North Carolina and the city of Durham. I grew up in the city of Durham. In spite of the hardships and ignorance of American injustices, we continued to persevere. In my opinion, segregation was a blessing in disguise in our communities and school systems. I say this because black owned businesses were prevalent in Durham. Black people owned an insurance company, service stations, mom and pop stores, small restaurants, barber shops, grocery stores, private business college, you name it Durham had it in the black community. And black police officers for black neighborhoods. We had only one high school in the city for all black students to attend. There were county high schools, 1A schools and 3A schools. We were a 4A school with more than 1200 hundred students. All of the best black athletes in the city had to attend Hillside high school. There was no watered down talent during my era. This was true throughout the state of North Carolina in black high schools. To make a varsity team in any major sport you had to be some what of a super star. The competition was very stiff. When I was a kid my next door neighbor was my sports idol. His name was William Burroughs but we called him Billy. Billy was the best player on the basketball team at Hillside, their leading scorer and re-bounder. He also played football and was a good student athlete. One day I followed him to his varsity basketball practice and hid in the gym until practice began. The coach caught me but allowed me to stay and watch them practice as long as I didn’t interfere. After practice I was allowed to shoot around until it was time to go. From that day until Billy graduated I would go to practice with him. There were some magnificent ball players on that team. As I watched them run through their drills, I knew that basketball was the game for me. I felt the adrenaline rush through my body and my palms sweat as they scrimmaged. Even though they were good they did not win a championship. Hillside had never won a state championship in basketball in it’s history. I knew that I wanted to play for Hillside and help win their first basketball championship. In 1962 -1963 I got my chance to attend Hillside early. There were so many students in junior high that a special wing was added to Hillside to accommodate the ninth graders. I lived a few blocks away so I got lucky and attended the ninth grade at Hillside. Some of my future team-mates attended as well. A few of my soon to be future team-mates attended Whitted junior high where they were members of the basketball team. Some of the members reached stardom while they were there. We started our ninth grade year at Hillside in September of 1962. There were no sports teams for ninth graders when we got there. Coach Russell Blunt organized a basketball team for us. I played on the team for coach Blunt. We played intramural basketball our first year there. Coach did a great job on such short notice. He spent time with us even though he was busy with track and football. Coach scheduled a few games for us, that was the beginning of my basketball career at Hillside. In 1963 Some very significant and tragic history would happen.

In June of 1963 civil rights leader Medgar Evers was felled by an assassins bullet simply because he wanted to abolish the Jim crow laws that gripped this country. The civil rights march on Washington was led by Dr. Martin Luther King JR, where he delivered the famous I have a dream speech in August of 1963. The six tenth street church in Alabama was bombed by the Klu Klux Klan. Four little innocent black girls lost their lives because of hatred for black people. And 2 months later President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. We were in our class rooms when a voice came over the intercom system. At that moment, the whole school was silent. It seemed to take forever to hear the message. There was an eerie feeling before the message was relayed to us. The announcement was that president Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I could hear screams and moans through the hall ways. Teachers and students were crying, it seemed as though the world had stopped on it’s axis. There was panic and disbelief as we sat in momentary shock. We had read about the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln I never thought that it would happen in my life time. It was one of the saddest days of my life as a young black man in America. Every black person that I knew young and old liked our President. I think that we as a people had placed high hopes that president Kennedy and his administration would some how change racism in this country. Just maybe this man had some compassion for a race of people that were treated as if we didn’t count. At the time I didn’t focus on what it would take to change the way whites treated us in America. I always knew that change had to come from the hearts and minds of those that had hatred for another race of people. Change could not come from a written mandate. I remember going to the auditorium to watch the events unfold on television. Again there was crying as we watched the funeral procession on Pennsylvania avenue in our nations capitol. I remember feeling that America had been put to shame by such an act. It showed me that the white men had no respect for his own race of people. If that was the way problems and disagreements were solved then we as a people and a country would be in serious trouble. I knew that our black leaders would not be safe from the assassins bullet and history would prove this statement to be true. How would we ever recover from these un-godly assassinations of our leaders. We never got a chance to see how he ( John F. Kennedy ) would affect the social injustices done to our people. In my opinion all three of these men were eliminated because of their belief that all men should be treated equal. Prior to entering Hillside as a ninth grader I spent my eighth grade year at Whitted Junior High. I wanted to play basketball there but coach Williams did not give me or some of my future teammates a chance to make the team. He stated that I was not good enough to play on his team. That statement made me feel unwanted and hurt, but it did not break my confidence in my ability to play the game of basketball. Several of us proved his evaluation of our talent to be untrue. As you will see he missed a great opportunity to coach a unique group of athletes that had a great impact on future high school basket ball players in North Carolina. Years after our record setting season, black ball players from our high school were able to secure athletic scholarships to major universities. This was true throughout the state of North Carolina as well. In 1963-1964 we were sophomores in high school t