Racial Integration
Graham was a pioneer in integrating collegiate athletics in the region. While at Kansas State he supported African American Harold Robinson in his football career and awarded him an athletic scholarship. Robinson broke the decades-long "color barrier" in the Big Seven Conference playing for Graham in 1949. Robinson later compared Graham to Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who hired Jackie Robinson to integrate baseball in 1947. Integration was also a priority at Wichita, where one of Graham's best players was also African American—running back Linwood Sexton.
Read more about this topic: Ralph Graham
Famous quotes containing the words racial and/or integration:
“... all Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice.”
—Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)