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Regular thoughts on the human condition and corporate social responsibility by the CEO of a "for-benefit"company.
Our company is celebrating "Diversity Week" this week with a host of activities and educational encounters. Today, one of our youn guys, Dan Baum, wrote the following note to all our staff. It's terrific and I wanted to share it with you:
"Hi everybody, Today, while Angela, Alexi, Denise, Chris and John go visit the new Greensboro Museum, I want to remind you all to sign up for the pot luck on Friday and share with you the story of the South’s first integrated college basketball game, known now as the “Secret Game.” North Carolina is college basketball country, so it’s fitting that the South’s first integrated game would take place here. In 1944, the NCCU basketball team made contact with the Duke Medical School basketball team to discuss the possibility of playing against one another. Since the NCCU players wouldn’t have been allowed on Duke’s segregated campus, the game would have to be played at Central. The Duke team pulled coats over their heads and hid on the floor of cars as they rode the short distance across town to NCCU’s campus, then sprinted inside the gym hoping no one would see them. They made it in without being noticed, and the game tipped off. NCCU won 88-44, which isn’t surprising, as a basketball historian remembers that Central, at that time, “could’ve beaten Duke and Carolina in the same day – one in the morning and one at night.” Led by Coach John McClendon, who pioneered the fast break, up tempo style of basketball that is common today, NCCU’s program was far better than any of the neighboring ACC schools at this time, but they never got a chance to prove it out in the open. Even better than breaking barriers by competing against one another, after the game ended the players split up into shirts and skins and played a fully integrated game together.
Don’t forget to bring your lunch for the choir’s performance tomorrow!"
We're having a great time here this week, celebrating that which is different between us and recognizing that which has made us who we are. Our activities this week -- and year 'round -- are not about tolerance. They are about the joy that comes from merging different tones into harmony. Our work is not yet done, of course, but we are on an intentional journey and we're each and all better for it.
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