“If you could have dinner with one person in the history of sports, particularly connected to the African American experience…who would it be?” The Nation’s Dave Zirin puts this question to an all-star panel as part of a larger discussion on the role sports have had in improving the lives African Americans. Author Michael Eric Dyson, FanHouse columnist Kevin Blackistone and former football player Bobby Mitchell join him on CSN in a four-part series to mark Black History Month.
For Dyson and Blackistone, it was Muhammad Ali and Paul Robeson, who at their time were controversial for their outspoken anger at systematic racism. But for Mitchell, who desegregated the Washington Redskins 50 years ago, its revisiting the summers of his youth where he had the opportunity to play with athletes like baseball players Roy Campanella and Monte Irvin.
“I’d like to sit with Roy…because I have a lot of questions for him now," Mitchell says. "And again, I want to thank him for buying my graduation suit my senior year in High School.”
Click here for the first, second and third videos in the series.
—Sara Jerving
