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Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South - Andrew Maraniss - 10/25/2015 - 12:30pm

Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South

Community Room 301

The New York Times bestselling book Strong Inside is the untold story of Perry Wallace, who in 1966 enrolled at Vanderbilt University and became the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. Strong Inside is not just the story of a trailblazing athlete, but of civil rights, race in America, a campus in transition during the tumultuous 1960s, the mental toll of pioneering, decades of ostracism, and eventual reconciliation and healing.
 
This fast-paced, richly detailed and meticulously researched biography digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a more complicated, illuminating and rewarding story of sports pioneering than we’ve come to expect from the genre. First-time author Andrew Maraniss masterfully unfolds the unique life story of Wallace, the rare slam-dunking basketball star who was also a valedictorian, engineering double-major, law school graduate, and university professor. Wallace’s unusually insightful and honest introspection reveals his inner thoughts throughout his journey.

Andrew Maraniss

Andrew Maraniss

Andrew Maraniss is the author of Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South, the biography of Perry Wallace, the Vanderbilt basketball player who was the first African American player in the Southeastern Conference. Strong Inside debuted on the New York Times bestseller lists in both the sports and civil rights categories and remained on both lists for four months, an unheard of feat for a first-time author published by a university press. The book is the bestselling book in the history of Vanderbilt University Press, and in May, it received an RFK Book Award, the first sports-related book ever to receive the prestigious honor. Andrew, now a partner at McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations in Nashville, was born in Madison and is the son of Madisonians David and Linda Maraniss.

Recent Book
Strong Inside