Feb. 17, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
On campus in Nashville — Godfrey Dillard played on Vanderbilt’s freshman basketball team during the 1966-67 season, and as an African-American high school prospect from Detroit, Dillard and fellow freshman Perry Wallace became the first black players in SEC basketball history. Adjusting to new surroundings in Nashville was a test unto itself for the young Dillard; acclimating to the South during the Civil Rights era was another challenge entirely.
But Dillard never saw race in the thick of an SEC basketball game. In those moments, when the Commodores needed a clutch basket, Dillard simply sought the trust of his teammates – no matter his skin color.
“Those were my values,” Dillard told VUCommodores.com this week. “That was going to be the most important thing in your mind, not what color you were or what part of the country you were from.”
This week Dillard, now an attorney and activist in Detroit, will carry those memories to West End as part of Vanderbilt’s Equality Weekend. It’s a celebration of Black History Month that takes place during Saturday’s men’s basketball game against South Carolina and Sunday’s women’s basketball game against Ole Miss. The university is set to honor Dillard and 20 other civil rights figures from Nashville’s history, and both teams will don special Black History Month uniforms — built exclusively for Vanderbilt by Nike – for the occasion.
ELLIS: Student-athletes react to ‘Equality Weekend’
In his return to campus, Dillard said he takes pride in joining Vanderbilt’s “Equality Weekend,” a sign of an evolving society across sports and beyond.
“The fact that you see sports in America today, and at Vanderbilt today, cosigning and vindicating those values that I had, it makes me feel very good and proud,” Dillard said. “I’m very happy to see what I’ve seen across this country when it comes to sports, because the environment Perry and I experienced was a much, much darker environment than what it is now.”
Dillard will join a host of pivotal civil rights figures who will be recognized across both Vanderbilt men’s and women’s basketball games. The honorees include a civil rights attorney, a newspaper reporter, a former state senator, a former Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and many more historic individuals.
One such figure is Mary Frances Berry, Professor of American Social Thought and of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Berry attended segregated Nashville schools and began her college education at nearby Fisk University. In 1976 she became the first black woman to head a major research university when she was named chancellor of the University of Colorado. Berry later co-founded the Free South Africa Movement, which is dedicated abolishing apartheid in South Africa, and she has received 33 honorary degrees.
Berry understands first-hand the progress that’s taken place in Nashville, and she said she is grateful to be part of another step towards equality.
“Though I am unable to be there, I think this is very exciting,” said Berry, who will be represented by her brother, Rev. Troy Merritt, this weekend. “I’ve never had an honor like this. I love Vanderbilt, and I love basketball. So I think it’s great, and I am very honored and grateful.”
Certain honorees will be represented by their families during Saturday and Sunday’s festivities. Dr. Andre. L. Churchwell, senior associate dean for diversity affairs at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, will represent his late father, Robert Churchwell. The elder Churchwell was a pioneer of African-American journalism as one of the first black reporters to work full-time at a white, Southern newspaper, The Nashville Banner. Churchwell, a Fisk University graduate who died in 2009, was named a charter member of the National Association of Black Journalists in 1994. He was later inducted into the association’s regional Hall of Fame.
The younger Churchwell, a 1975 graduate of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering, described the opportunity to represent his father as “powerful” and expects an emotional environment at Memorial Gym.
“It’s a great day when Nashville, and more importantly Vanderbilt, such a magnificent international university sitting in the middle of this cauldron, reaches out and acknowledges African-Americans who pushed civil rights forward for the whole city,” Dr. Andre L. Churchwell said. “This tells us how far we’ve come. Despite whatever challenges we still face in the country around race, we’ve come a mighty long way, as they say in church.”
As Dillard tells it, his Vanderbilt story is a bit more complex. He transferred to Eastern Michigan after his freshman season, and uncomfortable memories prevented frequent returns to campus for more than four decades; his most recent on-campus appearance was when the university invited Dillard and Wallace to campus last fall in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of their freshman seasons. The duo’s journey is chronicled in Andrew Maraniss’ new book, Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South.
This week, Dillard plans to bring his wife and children to Vanderbilt’s “Equality Weekend.” To Dillard and many others like him, Vanderbilt represents a piece of history in society’s steps towards equality. That’s what makes “Equality Weekend” a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these honorees.
“I told my family I want to bring them back to where Dad started,” Dillard said. “I think it’s important for my children, in particular, to reflect upon an integral part of who I am and where I came from. I’m trying to make it a family affair.”
Vanderbilt men’s basketball tips off against South Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. CT. The Commodore women will face Ole Miss on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.
LIST OF HONOREES:
George Barrett
Mary Frances Berry
Adolpho Birch, Jr.
Robert Churchwell
Godfrey Dillard
Coyness Ennix
Francis Guess
Sen. Thelma Harper
Bishop Joseph Johnson
Rev. James Lawson
Ed Martin
Leatrice McKissack
Walter Murray
Betty Nixon
Rosetta Miller-Perry
Dorothy Phillips
Robert and Gertrude Rempfer
John Seigenthaler
Kelly Miller Smith
Ed Temple
Perry Wallace