The Wall Street Journal today includes a review of author Jay Jennings’ new book, “Carry the Rock: Race, Football and the Soul of an American City,” which follows the Little Rock Central High School football team on the 50th Anniversary of the school’s historic 1957 desegregation crisis.
Jennings will be at the Clinton School for a lecture and book signing on Sept. 30 at 6:00 p.m. Here’s an excerpt from the review:
“Carry the Rock: Race, Football, and the Soul of an American City” chronicles a season that Mr. Jennings spent with Central High’s football team, and it manages to bear the burden of its subtitle. The devotion of Little Rock to the Tigers resembles a civic religion, one strong enough to weather upheavals as traumatic as the desegregation crisis itself: When Central was closed by Gov. Orval Faubus during the 1958-59 school year, the Tigers fielded a squad that placed second in the state.
Mr. Jennings gained the trust of Tigers players and staff and, most important, of head coach Bernie Cox, an Arkansas legend renowned as much for his strict discipline and run-’em-over-and-grind-’em-down offense as for his string of seven state championships. Mr. Cox shunned the spotlight throughout a three-decade tenure but gave Mr. Jennings access to the program.
Click here to read the full review. To RSVP for Jennings’ Clinton School lecture, email publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu.