Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Ohio State University”

Learn About Mack Robinson, Olympic Silver Medalist, Community Activist and Jackie’s Older Brother (LISTEN)

Learn About Mack Robinson, Olympic Silver Medalist, Community Activist and Jackie’s Older Brother (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 16, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In yesterday’s daily drop we celebrated sports legend Jackie Robinson. But did you know his older brother Mack Robinson had his own claim to sports fame?

Matthew Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson was an outstanding track and field athlete who won the silver medal in the 200-meter event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing just four tenths of a second behind Jesse Owens.

To read about Robinson, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Pasadena Robinson Memorial

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, April 16th, 2022, based on the format of the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

In yesterday’s daily drop we celebrated some of Jackie Robinson’s greatest achievements in the realm of sports. But did you know his older brother Mack Robinson has his own sports claims to fame as well?

Born in 1914, Matthew Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson was an outstanding track and field athlete who went from competing at Pasadena City College in California to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin after local Pasadena business owners paid his way to the Olympic trials in New York.

With no coaching and worn-down shoes – the same ones he’d used all season to compete with at junior college, Robinson won a silver medal in the 200-meter event, finishing just four tenths of a second behind the gold medal winner from Ohio State University who became world-renowned for his track and field feats in those same Olympics — Jesse Owens.

Mack Robinson with his Silver Medal from the 1936 Olympics

And for Robinson, with all he was up against, was rightfully proud of his achievement, as he explained in a 1985 interview conducted for the educational series, Black Champions:

[Clip of Mack Robinson]

“You know, we had sixty-four individuals that was in the two hundred meters in the very beginning, and they had to be eliminated down to eight.

So when you look at, you’re inside of the eight out of sixty-four, that’s not bad; and you go on down, and you’re number two out of the eight and, which covers the whole world, to me, it’s great.

I have no qualms about finishing second. I’ve enjoyed placing second. My silver medal has a lot of meaning to me, and I believe it has as much meaning in it as the gold.”

After the Olympics, Robinson went on to attend the University of Oregon, where in 1938 he won the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Amateur Athletic Union titles in the 220-yard dash.

Robinson left college soon after to return to Pasadena to work and care of his family. Robinson worked menial jobs for the city, and it’s been reported that he lost his job as a street sweeper when Pasadena fired all of its Black municipal employees in retaliation for a court order demanding it desegregate its public pools.

Though Robinson later went on to work as a Park Director in East Hollywood, he stayed locally active in Pasadena at all times, determined to advocate for the betterment of his community. He regularly went down to City Hall and pushed for playgrounds, YMCAs, swimming pools — anything that would help keep the local youth active and out of trouble.

Robinson also lobbied for better books in the libraries, fought to keep the local parks clean, safe and free of drugs and alcohol, and he organized clothing drives to help the less fortunate in different parts of the country.

Robinson is even reported to have gone after a local liquor store where neighbors were being accosted. He took down a local den of gambling and prostitution, and he also crusaded to get streets, sidewalks and gutters fixed. Robinson was often seen at the Pasadena Board of City Directors meetings, and himself is quoted as saying, “I’m a thorn in their side. I’m a squeaky wheel that gets the grease, but what I’m trying to get is lubricant for a lifetime.”

Robinson eventually got a job working as a truant officer at John Muir High School, the same high school he attended in Pasadena, and also worked in that capacity to help keep youth out of trouble.

In 1981, Mack Robinson was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and in 1995 he was inducted into the University of Oregon Hall of Fame.

In 1984 Robinson was part of a select group chosen to carry a large Olympic flag in the Opening Ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympics.

And in 1997, Mack Robinson received one of the best recognitions of all the dedication he put in locally and civically. The memorial created in Pasadena, called the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, not only honored his famous younger brother Jackie for his nationally-renowned achievements, but also honored Mack for his lifetime of activism in the community.

While the 9-foot-tall bust of Jackie faces northeast towards Brooklyn, where he famously integrated Major League Baseball, Mack’s equally tall bust looks directly at Pasadena City Hall.

Mack Robinson passed in the year 2000, and in that same year Pasadena City College, which he attended and which he represented on the track and field, dedicated its stadium to him. And the United States Post Office named its new Pasadena branch the Matthew “Mack” Robinson Post Office Building.

To learn more about Mack Robinson, watch the 2021 CBS Los Angeles feature story about him on YouTube, the 2016 documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice which follows the 18 Black athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and that’s currently streaming on Amazon Video.

You can also watch the 1985 Black Champions interview in its entirety in the Washington University at St. Louis archives site, or listen to the 2016 Hidden History of Los Angeles podcast episode on Robinson.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

Literature Professor Aaron Oforlea Wins Creative Scholarship Award from College Language Association for Debut Book

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2018
Dr. Aaron Oforlea (photo via news.wsu.edu)

via jbhe.com

Aaron N. Oforlea, an associate professor in the English department at Washington State University, has won the Creative Scholarship Award from the College Language Association for his debut book, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and the Rhetorics of Black Male Subjectivity (Ohio State University Press, 2017). The international honor recognizes excellence in literary criticism.

According to Dr. Oforlea, he got inspiration for his book came from his interest in “how African American men achieve their dreams and goals despite racism.” His work examines two of his favorite authors and analyzes their respective African American characters and how they navigated their challenges. Upon receiving the award, he stated, “To win the award, I think for me it’s validation that I’m on the right track, that my work is making an impact in the field.”

Professor Oforlea is the only African American in his department and the only African American literature scholar at Washington State University. He has taught at the university since 2007 and was promoted to associate professor in 2013. Prior to coming to Washington State, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of English at Santa Clara University in California.

Dr. Oforlea holds a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature/letters from California State University, Chico and a Ph.D. in English language and literature/letters from Ohio State University.

Source: https://www.jbhe.com/2018/10/aaron-oforlea-wins-award-from-the-college-language-association-for-his-debut-book/

Ohio State Univ. President Michael V. Drake to Chair Board of Directors of the Association of American Universities

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2016

OSU President Michael Drake (photo via
OSU President Michael V. Drake (photo via thelantern.com)

article via jbhe.com
Michael V. Drake, the 15th president of Ohio State University and the first African American to hold that post, was elected vice chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Universities. He will serve one year as vice chair and then become chair of the board in 2017.
The Association of American Universities is composed of 62 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. It advocates on issues that are important to research-intensive universities, such as funding for research, research policy issues, graduate and undergraduate education, and campus life.
“Our participation in national higher education organizations gives Ohio State a unique opportunity to help set the course for solving the most important higher education issues of the day,” said President Drake. He also serves as chair of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
Dr. Drake became president of Ohio State University in June 2014. From 2005 to 2014, he was chancellor of the University of California, Irvine. Earlier, he was the director of education and research for the 15 health science schools of the University of California System.
To read more, go to: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/10/michael-drake-to-chair-the-board-of-directors-of-the-association-of-american-universities/

Legal Scholar and "The New Jim Crow" Author Michelle Alexander to Receive $250,000 Heinz Award

By goodblacknews on October 4, 2016

article via jbhe.com

Michelle Alexander (photo via newjimcrow.com)
Michelle Alexander (photo via newjimcrow.com)

Michelle Alexander, a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation, has been chosen to receive the Heinz Award in the public policy category. The awards were established by Teresa Heinz in 1993 to honor the memory of her late husband, U.S. Senator John Heinz from Pennsylvania, an heir to the Heinz Ketchup fortune. The Heinz Award comes with a $250,000 prize.
According to the award committee, Professor Alexander is being honored “for her work in drawing national attention to the issues of mass incarceration of African American youth and men in the United States, and for igniting a movement that is inspiring organizations and individuals to take constructive action on criminal justice reform.” She is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New Press, 2010).
To read more, go to: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/09/legal-scholar-michelle-alexander-selected-to-receive-a-250000-heinz-award/

Dr. Christian Head Wins $4.5 Million Settlement In Racial Bias Lawsuit Against UCLA Medical School

By goodblacknews on July 20, 2013

christian-head-uclaDr. Christian Head, a surgeon at UCLA‘s medical school, will receive $4.5 million to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents, the university system announced Thursday.  The agreement settles the lawsuit, filed in April, that accused the university of failing to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation against Head. The head and neck surgeon alleged that he was retaliated against for filing complaints through normal channels and was denied teaching opportunities.

Head, 51, also alleged that he was routinely publicly humiliated and once was depicted as a gorilla being sodomized in a slide show presentation during a resident graduation event.  “The case presented difficult issues of alleged discrimination and retaliation that were strongly contested,” the university said in a statement. “…The matter was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”  The regents approved the settlement in a closed-session meeting in San Francisco on Thursday.
During a 2006 event for faculty, staff and graduating medical school residents, a slide show created by the residents — and typically reviewed by staff — included a photo in which Head’s face was superimposed on a gorilla that was being sodomized by a department chairman, according to the complaint.  Without admitting fault or liability, the university acknowledged that “an inappropriate slide was shown” and regrets the incident, the statement said.

Obama Encourages Ohio State Graduates to ‘Dream Bigger’

By goodblacknews on May 6, 2013

resident Barack Obama gives the commencement address to the graduating class of The Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio. Obama addressed the graduates a year from the day he kicked off his re-election campaign at the campus.The president was also given an honorary degree Doctor of Laws. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama gives the commencement address to the graduating class of The Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio. Obama addressed the graduates a year from the day he kicked off his re-election campaign at the campus.The president was also given an honorary degree Doctor of Laws. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A year to the day after kicking off his victorious re-election campaign on this college campus, President Barack Obama returned to Ohio State University and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their democracy can they right a poorly functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation’s future.
“I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to dream bigger,” Obama said.
In a sunbaked stadium filled with more than 57,000 students, friends and relatives, Obama lamented an American political system that gets consumed by “small things” and works for the benefit of society’s elite. He called graduates to duty to “accomplish great things,” like rebuilding a still-feeble economy and fighting poverty and climate change.
“Only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be,” Obama told more than 10,000 cap-and-gown-clad graduates gathered for the rite of passage. “But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship.”
The visit to Ohio State — the first of three commencement addresses Obama will give this season — was a homecoming of sorts for Obama, who has visited the campus five times over little more than a year, starting with his first official campaign rally here last May. He made many more stops elsewhere in Ohio as he and Republican Mitt Romney dueled for the Midwestern state which was pivotal to Obama’s victories in both 2008 and 2012.