Description
Book SynopsisDuring the 1950s, a group of ambitious young African Americans enrolled at Ohio University, a predominantly white school in Athens, Ohio. Years later, eighteen of them decided to share their stories, recalling the joys and challenges of living on a white campus before the civil rights era.
Trade Review“
Soulful Bobcats… is a valuable, highly readable collection of oral histories from African-American students during the postwar years…. (It) should be on every Bobcat’s shelf. Indeed, it should be of interest to all who care about the history of African Americans in higher education.” * Ohio Today *
“
Soulful Bobcats makes clear that while OU was making progress against institutional racism in the years after World War II, it still had a long road to travel…. While it's clear that being treated as second-class citizens or worse was infuriating and demeaning, the Soulful Bobcats' memories are sometimes funny, sometimes rueful, and relentlessly upbeat. They patiently fielded questions from curious white classmates about what it's like to be black, and took insults from professors as a spur to do even better in class. Most of all, they relied on each other.” * The Athens News *
“Thank you for
Soulful Bobcats. Like found treasure, it captures a valuable glimpse into the decade of black Bobcats who set the stage for my own generation's adventures in Athens. As I thumb through its pages I am constantly reminded of how much we stood on their shoulders in order to get to where we are now.”
