50 Weeks to Publication

Insights in Nashville

Hello friends!

Thanks so much for following along as I make my way through 2023 and toward the launch of the Tigerbelles story!

Last week I asked how much research is enough. I found out that the answer is just a little bit more.

I hopped on a plane to Nashville to uncover some new information about the Tigerbelles. I was looking for last minute details to add sparkle and shine to the manuscript before I hand it in, but what I found was much deeper than that. It was a new level of understanding about the entire project.

Visiting again with several of the people that I’ve interviewed reinforced the importance of the efforts that are made to uncover and explain the significance of pivotal events in our history.

I hugged a woman who reluctantly refrained from participating in civil rights sit ins for fear of losing her hard earned academic status and having to go home to a dangerously segregated town. Instead she chose to complete work assignments for her friend who traveled with the Freedom Rides. It was her way to support the movement. It was just one of her countless acts of service throughout her life.

I had lunch with a man who is generously sharing his decades of careful interviews with civil rights and sports heroes because he believes that the point of gathering the information is for it to be heard, without being overly concerned with ownership. His life has been dedicated to serving others by sharing stories, and the respect he has gathered is earned.

I spent time with a woman who lovingly and vigorously guards her family legacy because of her commitment to the authenticity of the way the story she has witnessed should be shared. Her knowledge and protection of her family archives insures safekeeping for future study, and her attention to the work assures the story will be told with integrity.

I am humbled to have been able to see these perspectives up close, and to meet the moment with enough background research to be able to fully understand and appreciate each of them.

If there is one thing we have in common, it is that each of us understand the importance of this story, and believe that more people should and will want to hear it.

This is one story. It’s a big one. But it’s not the only one. I am standing on the shoulders of other story tellers, female athletes are standing on the shoulders of the Tigerbelles, and anyone who cares about equity stands on the shoulders of those who have long fought for it.

On this weekend honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I’d like to also honor those who marched beside him. Those who heard him speak in person and answered his call to action in the way that they were able to. The world is better for all of you and I am grateful.

From Vanderbilt University Press:

Led by John Lewis (front), approximately 200 students sing hymns and march from Tennessee A&I toward the Tennessee state capitol on Sept. 14, 1961, to protest the dismissal of 14 Freedom Riders from the university. Members of the Nashville Student Movement played significant roles in the continuation of the interstate bus trips through Alabama and Mississippi in May 1961. (Photograph by Paul Schleicher, Nashville Banner. Courtesy of the Nashville Public Library, Special Collections)