The upcoming panel will touch on race, religion, and free speech
Photo by University of Wyoming from 1969
This upcoming Wednesday, a panel entitled “John Griffin & Phil White on the Black 14: Race, Religion, and Free Speech in Wyoming Football” will be held on the University of Wyoming campus about the Black 14.
The lead speakers of the panel include John Griffin, a member of the Black 14, and Phil White, a leading scholar of the Black 14.
On Oct. 17, 1969, 14 Black football players were immediately kicked off the University of Wyoming’s football team after telling then-coach Lloyd Eaton of their intent to wear black armbands in protest of during an upcoming game.
They came to be known as “The Black 14.”
The armbands were meant to show support to an ongoing BYU student protest of an LDS tenet (that wouldn’t be abolished until 1978) banning black men and women from temple ordinances or ordination within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 2019, on the 50-year anniversary of the Black 14’s dismissal, the university invited the Black 14’s surviving members back to campus to finally issue an official apology.
Both of the upcoming panel’s lead speakers were university students during the time of the Black 14’s dismissal.
John Griffin is a member of the Black 14, a UW grad, and a co-founder of the since-disbanded Black 14 Social Justice Summer Institute alongside Mel Hamilton and Tony McGee.
The institute gave Black high school students the opportunity to research contemporary problems facing the Black community during a week-long program at the university, but ended after just 2 years due to Wyoming’s elimination of funds for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, which the event was heavily tied to.
In 2023, Griffin also won the NCAA Inspiration Award, an accolade the NCAA has described as “honor[ing] those [that] used perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome a life-altering event and now serve as a role model, giving hope and inspiration to others.”
Phil White, the event’s second lead speaker, is a UW grad, journalist, former attorney, and former editor of The Branding Iron.
At the time of the Black 14’s dismissal in 1969, White used the student paper to express dissent, and help in the fight for the reinstatement of the players.
For over 25 years, White has worked to catalog the story of the Black 14 and preserve their history through both his published journalistic writing and books, including Wyoming in Mid-Century: Prejudice, Protest and “The Black 14” and Trials and Triumphs: Black Americans at the University of Wyoming.
The event will take place in the Wyoming Union Family Room (212) on Nov. 11th., beginning with a dinner held at 5:30 p.m., and the panel being held immediately after at 6:00 p.m.
The panel will discuss how race, religion, and free speech impact football players both historically and contemporarily at the university level.
Anyone is welcome to attend, and free food and beverages will be provided to those that do.
For any questions about the event, contact the College of Law’s Equal Justice
Discover more from Branding Iron
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
