There’s a reason for the simultaneous mourning and celebration of the lives of a basketball player and an actress, both out of the public eye for years. Nichelle Nichols, 89, and Bill Russell, 88, were born during the Great Depression into a society that defined them as second-class citizens simply because they were Black.
One of the most dominant high school and college basketball players in the country, Bill Russell led Team USA to gold at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. He then led the formerly mediocre Boston Celtics to 11 NBA championships, including a record eight in a row, during a decade of intense racial strife in that city. As much as many white Bostonians hated cheering for Black players, they made an exception for the Black man whose play created the city’s first great sports dynasty.
But it wasn’t his athletic success than made him a hero. Russell was also an active civil rights crusader who didn’t ignore the racial inequalities of the day for the sake of making his integration into the locker room and the arena floor smoother. He contributed money to the movement and recruited other Black athletes. He attended Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington.
