Athletics
The research question for this project is as follows: Who were some of the prominent Black athletes at the University of Scranton within the time periods of the 1940s - 1980s and what were their experiences like on campus?
The information being presented is on six prominent Black athletes at the University of Scranton and their accomplishments and accolades. We also inferred what these student athletes' experiences may have been like on campus, based on what was happening around the country, while they were college students.
It is our hope that by highlighting these six prominent Black athletes at the university it will lead to further historical research being done on the Black history of the school and city of Scranton.
Context
Our initial hopes for this project were to discover and dive deeper into Black athletes at the University of Scranton. We not only wanted to detail their athletic accomplishments and accolades, but also, what their time and experiences as a Black student athlete on campus may have been like.
As a team, we did extensive research to find primary and secondary sources related to our topic, some were easier to find than others. Black history as a whole at the University of Scranton is not greatly represented, and it is our job and mission to help change that.
We were not able to uncover the first female Black athlete at the university and were not able to find any information on prominent female Black athletes at all (within the university’s database). It is our hope that this project will lead to stronger representation for female Black athletes.
Our primary sources mainly consist of newspaper clippings that are stored in the University of Scranton’s digital archives. We also utilized the University of Scranton’s “Wall of Fame” located in the Long Center, to discover prominent Black athletes.