University of Maryland Award Will Honor Sports Journalists Who Work for Racial Equality

Wendell Smith
Wendell Smith

The University of Maryland has announced the establishment of the Lacy-Smith Award. The honor will be bestowed upon a sports journalist or broadcaster who has “made significant contributions to racial and gender equality in sports.”

The award is named for Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith, two African American journalists who documented Jackie Robinson’s effort to racially integrate Major League Baseball. Sam Lacy wrote for the Baltimore Afro-American and Wendell Smith was a writer for the Pittsburgh Courier.

George Solomon, director of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland stated that Lacy and Smith “worked tirelessly over the years, writing, lobbying, and cajoling Major League Baseball owners, many of the resistant, into trying to see the importance of integration to the future of not only the sport of baseball but to the country.”

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Concordia University in Canada Launches New Minor in Black and African Diaspora Studies

Christian Abraham, director of the new minor at Concordia University, says, "there is so much to do within this emerging field of Black Canadian studies. There are lots of grounded and creative sites to work with and from, including our extensive archives at Concordia. It is a very exciting field and a historic moment for Black studies in Canada.”

New Report Sets the Baseline for Future Studies on the Effect of Texas’ DEI Ban on College Campuses

"Ensuring all Texas students have the opportunity to succeed will directly strengthen our workforce and economy," write the report's authors. "While it’s too early to assess the impact of SB 17, continuous monitoring of student outcomes is critical to improving efficiency and maximizing the potential of our future workforce."

Robert Jones Named the First Black President of the University of Washington

Dr. Jones is slated to become the University of Washington's first Black president on August 1. He comes to his new role from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he has served as the institution's first Black chancellor for the past nine years.

Study Uncovers More Evidence That Black Students Are Overrepresented in School Discipline

In an examination of six different kinds of school discipline and punishment, three comparison groups, and 16 subpopulations, a new study has found that "no matter how you slice it, Black students are overrepresented among those punished and excluded."

Featured Jobs