Black History Month Highlight: Bill Russell

11-Time NBA Champion Boston Celtic great Bill Russell was a winner on the court and a Champion of Civil Rights off of it.

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Writing this on February 1, 2025, marks the start of Black History Month this year. As it goes, the state of Racial Inequality in America and American Sports continue to intertwine. Black athletes were recruited for their athletic prowess by programs and communities that refused to serve black athletes in the same establishments as their white teammates. Professional sports are a platform unlike any other because it allows an athlete’s play to do the talking. In the case of the 11-Time NBA World Champion Bill Russell, he used his voice to support the pivotal cause of fighting for Civil Rights in America during the 1960’s.

Tom Sanders (Far Left), Sam Jones (Middle Left), Bill Russell (Middle Right), John Havlicek (Far right)

Bill Russell’s basketball career speaks for itself, but his efforts off the court allowed his peers in the NBA to stand in solidarity across a divided nation. His also heavily influenced his community in Boston. In October of 1961, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics arrived in Lexington, Kentucky for a Pre-Season game. Before the game, Sam Jones and Tom Sanders, two Black members of the Boston team, were refused service at the Hotel Cafe. They brought this to the attention of Russell and teammate K.C. Jones who made it aware to Head Coach Red Auerbach. The four players decided to get on a plane and fly back to Boston and boycott the exhibition game. This display of unity in response to petty injustice is just one example of Russell’s holistic leadership of those legendary Celtics teams.

Russell participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs, organized black students to boycott Boston Public Schools, and opened an integrated basketball camp in Mississippi to support the family of Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers following his Murder in 1963. Russell also supported Ali's decision of refusing to fight in America’s War in Vietnam and to go to prison instead of denouncing his beliefs surrounding civil rights and religious freedom.

A proud brother of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, initiated into the Gamma Alpha Chapter in 1955 at his alma mater University of San Francisco. Russell is familiar with both service and achievement. In 2011 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by America’s first Black President Barack Obama, at the 2019 ESPY awards he received an award which is the namesake of another one of our Kappa brothers, The Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Held in a high degree of reverence both for his accomplishments and acts of courage and inspiration to the world around him Bill Russell went on to glory July 31, 2022. His impact will continue on the basketball court and beyond.

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Jared Bell

Instagram: Jr.Bell_