In 1969, James Owens (1951–2016) made sports history as the first Black football player at Auburn University—a significant milestone that marked the beginning of the end of segregation in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Owens, a running back, was an exemplary athlete who battled racism and immense scrutiny during his time at Auburn. Yet his strength, his faith, and his family's support emboldened him to persevere and break the color barrier, which ultimately opened the door for other Bl...

In 1969, James Owens (1951–2016) made sports history as the first Black football player at Auburn University—a significant milestone that marked the beginning of the end of segregation in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Owens, a running back, was an exemplary athlete who battled racism and immense scrutiny during his time at Auburn. Yet his strength, his faith, and his family's support emboldened him to persevere and break the color barrier, which ultimately opened the door for other Bl...

After the freedom rides ended, after the bus boycotts and sit-ins, the marches and protests, and long after the TV cameras and federal marshals packed up and went home, Henry Harris enrolled at Auburn University, alone in a dormitory of one hundred and fifty white southern males high on testosterone. Harris was the first African American on athletic scholarship at Auburn and, more importantly, the first black athlete at any SEC school in the Deep South. An exceptional basketball player, he...

It was Atlanta's Titanic.On December 7, 1946 at 3:42 a.m. the first alarm came into Atlanta Fire Department headquarters:"The Winecoff Hotel is on fire!"Twenty minutes later the fourth, final and "general alarm" - the one reserved for a citywide conflagration - went out.For the next two hours everything good, bad, improbable and certain about the human experience played out. Few events in history can match the Winecoff fire for extremes.No one who wa...