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Opinion

October 10, 2012

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Anonymous The Star Herald The Star Herald Wed Oct 10, 2012, 01:46 PM CDT

KOSCIUSKO — It was a segment on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that grabbed my attention a few weeks ago.

Not only was it about football but about Mississippi too.

Alcorn State University, a historically black college, had become the first to hire a white head football coach in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. His name – Jay Hobson.

ASU President M. Christopher Brown II said that the SWAC might not have been ready for a white football coach but Alcorn was.

Telling of his qualifications, Brown said if they hadn’t hired him, it would be like letting the “internal black racism” continue to be harbored.

So, if Hobson is qualified and wants and can coach football at Alcorn, then “What’s the big deal?”

Then, again, maybe I see things too plainly.

The flip side of the argument was brought about by Arkansas Baptist College President Fitzgerald Hill.

Hill said his college was started by former slaves to educate their race.

And, to take away the “focus” or “mission” of the college is not right.

“I doubt they they would hire another race ahead of their own,” Hill said.

I thought that we had moved – way beyond my lifetime – from “Separate but Equal.”

Alcorn is a public institution using tax dollars paid by a multitude of races and ASU’s president is trying to take the university to another level making it a “great university,” instead of only being a great historically black university.

Fifty years ago, James Meredith was the first black man to enroll at the University of Mississippi and just months ago Hobson became the first white coach at a historically black institution.

It could not be summed up any better than this –

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “I have a Dream.”

Leslie N. Dees is managing editor of The Star-Herald. Email her at editor@starherald.net. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lndees.

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