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Gainesville, FL — The University of Florida’s African American Studies Program and the Florida A&M National Alumni Association of Alachua County are sponsoring an evening of thought-provoking discussions and a screening of Bridging Troubled Waters: Coach Jessie Heard, Football and Desegregation, a documentary film about the role football played in Gainesville and beyond before, during and after desegregation. This free event will take place on Tuesday, February 18, 5:00 p.m., at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention. The event is free and open to all who register; light refreshments will be served. 


Attendees will have the opportunity to hear insights from the central figure in the documentary, Jessie Heard, as well as from Derrick E. White, Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and author of
Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football.

 

“Coach Heard is a football legend. Whether you’re a young athlete, a sports fan, or simply live in Gainesville, you’d benefit from learning the history of desegregation in football and how people like Coach Heard were agents of social change and used the sport to bring people together,” said Brad Gamble, CEO of the Cade Museum.  


In the 1950s, Heard starred as a running back at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), a
public, historically Black university. He was the last head football coach at Gainesville’s Lincoln High School and the first athletic director and head football coach at Buchholz High School. At Lincoln, Heard navigated a rough course from segregation to freedom of choice desegregation, and through the closure of segregated schools. At Buchholz, Heard was one of just three remaining black head high school football coaches in Florida. There, he built a winning program with an integrated coaching staff and team and now sits in the FAMU Football Hall of Fame.


The first 100 people to
register for the event will receive a free copy of White’s book which explores the legacy of Black college football, with Florida A&M’s Jake Gaither as its central character. While Gaither led one of the most respected Black college football programs, many questioned his loyalties during the height of the civil rights movement. Among the first broad-based histories of Black college athletics, White’s story complicates the heroic narrative of integration and grapples with the complexities and contradictions of one of the most important sources of Black pride in the twentieth century. 


For more information, visit
https://cademuseum.org/event/blood-sweat-and-tears 


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Media Contact: Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org

 

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