War Eagle or Roll Tide? What does it matter when you can no longer venture safely into the major cities of Alabama—but base your entire identity upon a college football team comprised of the very people who make those cities uninhabitable?
by Paul Kersey
This Saturday, November 26, those watching the 76th Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama on CBS will see a bizarre situation: two overwhelmingly white schools represented on the field by two overwhelmingly black teams, most of whose athletes call “home” those cities and counties that white Alabamians now avoid like the plague—for very good, but currently unmentionable, reasons.
It’s been 41 years since celebrated Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote these gloating words following the 42-21 defeat of the all-white Alabama Crimson Tide football team by an integrated University of Southern California Trojans at historic Legion Field in Birmingham AL:
“OK, you can put another star in the Flag. “On a warm and sultry night when you could hear train whistles hooting through the piney woods half a county away, the state of Alabama joined the Union. They ratified the Constitution, signed the Bill of Rights. They have struck the Star and Bars. They now hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal in the eyes of the creator. “Our newest state took the field against a mixed bag of hostile black and white American citizens without police dogs, tear gas rubber hoses or fire hoses. They struggled without the aid of their formidable ally, Jim Crow. “Bigotry wasn’t suited up for a change. Prejudice got cut from the squad. Will you all please stand and welcome the sovereign state of Alabama to the United States of America?” [Hatred Shut Out as Alabama Finally Joins the Union, September 13, 1970. Note: Quotes have VDARE.com-added links throughout]
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