Book Description

This book is composed of stories about prejudice and protest in Wyoming between the1940s and the 70s, with a focus on the Black 14 incident at the University of Wyoming in 1969 in which all 14 African American players on the varsity roster were dismissed by the coach. The people and events leading up to the dismissals of these 14 varsity players on the University of Wyoming's undefeated and 12th ranked football team are examined in detail. The reaction in the state and the rapid decline in the football program, leading to the exit of the head coach, are described. The state will be reviewing the event during its 50th anniversary in 2019. Other issues examined include: -- The 1943 mass draft resistance trial of 63 young American citizens of Japanese descent from the Heart Mountain Internment Camp near Cody, Wyoming -- The removal from a "baby contest" of an African American toddler, son of a serviceman stationed in Casper during WWII -- The 1958 protest against the world's first ICBM missile site near Cheyenne in which Kenneth Calkins, a young graduate student from the Univ. of Chicago, suffered a fractured pelvis when hit by a gravel truck while doing civil disobedience. After earning a Ph.D. and becoming a history professor at Kent State, Calkins urged the removal of National Guard troops from the campus in the days leading to the killing of four students and then witnessed the event as a faculty marshal. -- The refusal of barbers in a small community college town in Wyoming to give haircuts to the black basketball players until after hours with the drapes closed. -- Protests of the Vietnam War and draft resistance in Wyoming, along with stories of Wyoming soldiers who fought in Vietnam, including one who is still missing and another who was a prisoner of war for nearly five years and whose MIA bracelet was worn by the winning contestant at a Miss America pageant. -- The story of a draft resister convicted in a Wyoming trial whose stand and story influenced Daniel Ellsburg to release the Pentagon Papers. -- The expulsion of African American students at a Cheyenne High School in 1972 after they refused to stand for the flag in protest to the Vietnam War and racial discrimination, leading to the dismissal of some students and an innovative teacher who supported them. -- Numerous examples of the "generation gap" and the war on counter-culture youth, such as a Wyoming sheriff jailing and shaving long-haired hitchhikers' heads. -- The story of two UW women students who participated in the 1964 "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi. -- Controversies over inter-racial dating, dress codes and curfews for coeds at the University of Wyoming in the 60s -- Repeal of Wyoming's anti-miscegenation law in 1965 and the defeat of an initiative which would have lowered the voting age in 1969-70.