This spring the Wild Bunch sponsors a talk and book signing with historian Scott Ellsworth from University of Michigan. His book The Secret Game (2015) brings to light an important, nearly-forgotten story about WWII, the New South, and basketball. Focusing on a game played in Durham, NC, Ellsworth describes the lives of black and white players and their world, a world struggling with war abroad and segregation at home. Why was this game kept secret afterward?
The author of “Death in a Promised Land” (LSU Press), the first comprehensive history of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Dr. Ellsworth served as one of the lead scholars for the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, and has been involved in the ongoing legal efforts to win compensation for riot survivors. Formerly with the Smithsonian Institution, he has written about American history for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications, and has appeared on National Public Radio, the Today Show, PBS’s The American Experience, the History Channel and in both film and broadcast documentaries.
Please join us February 7 at 4:10pm for a discussion, book signing and reception. The event is funded by the Wild Bunch Fund, established in 1997 to honor late Chancellor Emeritus Alexander Heard and his wife, Jean Heard.