In August 1961, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Colts were scheduled to play a pre-season football game at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, Virginia. However, a Virginia statute required that seating for the contest be segregated.
In response to the decision by local organizers and officials to sell tickets to the game on a segregated basis, a local civil rights lawyer and a local minister worked together to bring national attention to the injustice of the law by organizing the first successful civil rights boycott of a professional sporting event.
Based on his article in the next Journal of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Professor Alex Long of the of the University of Tennessee College of Law will deliver the talk on February 13, 2025 at 7pm in the Logan Gallery on the campus of Roanoke College.
The talk is FREE and open to the public. If you are unable to make it in person, the event will also be live-streamed; the link will be made available on their website on Thursday.
Parking for this event is available in the following Roanoke College parking lots: P10, P11, P14 and P28.
This event is a joint presentation of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke College Anthropology Concentration, Roanoke College Center for Studying Structures of Race, Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, and Salem Museum and Historical Society – an event you won’t want to miss!