On Thursday, February 13, 2025, the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation co-hosted Dr. Alex Long in a joint presentation titled, Victory Stadium: How a Lawyer, a Minister and 20 Football Players Helped End Segregation in Virginia and Professional Sports in the Logan Gallery on the campus of Roanoke College in Salem, VA.
Based upon his article to appear in the next Journal of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Dr. Alex Long, professor of the of the University of Tennessee College of Law, spoke to 70 people about an event in August of 1961 when the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Colts were scheduled to play a pre-season football game at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, Virginia. However, at that time, a Virginia statute required that seating for the contest be segregated. In response to the decision by local organizers and officials to sell tickets to the game on a segregated basis, a local civil rights lawyer and a local minister worked together to bring national attention to the injustice of the law by organizing the first successful civil rights boycott of a professional sporting event.
Following his presentation, Dr. Long held a Q & A session followed by a ‘meet and greet complemented with light refreshments.
A Zoom recording was made of Dr. Long’s presentation for the convenience of those unable to attend. It will be available for viewing until February 2026.
This event was a joint presentation of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke College Anthropology Concentration, Roanoke College Center for Studying Structures of Race, Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, and Salem Museum and Historical Society.
