"he was like a father figure"

This past Monday, the students met for the final time this semester. The lesson before them: observing the ways in which Arnold Hirsch's "second ghetto" thesis poses tensions with the University of Miami football team's success in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1983, Hirsch explored the ways in which the postwar migration of African Americans and segregationist practices led to the creation of "second ghettoes" in Chicago. His thesis could be applied to other communities  including Miami. As Raymond Mohl wrote in his study of postwar Miami, African Americans residing in this city were often encouraged to move to other communities by realtors and policy makers. These "new" communities to which blacks moved were often initially inhabited by white residents. When whites fled, these communities became "second ghettoes." The topic resonated with me personally as I grew up in Miami and never considered the four bedroom house in Carol City (now Miami Gardens) to which my parents moved  in 1972 from Coconut Grove  as a ghetto home (It was very different from the Kingsway two-bedroom duplex we started out in in "The Projects" of Coconut Grove, now called West Grove. I guess "ghetto" does not always mean slums, or the built environment, as much as it means segregation). During my preliminary exams, I read Mohl's work and learned that, indeed, my neighborhood was a planned community for African Americans who originally lived in other portions of then-Dade County. The community in which I lived was filled with residents who moved from Liberty City, another neighborhood created especially for African Americans including those who lived in crowded conditions in Coconut Grove and Overtown. Some of their forced removal had to do with the building of I-95, which displaced at least 10,000 African Americans residing in Overtown alone. So how does this narrative relate to the University of Miami football team? Well, some of the team's players had roots in these very neighborhoods, which some observers believed was reflected in their behavior on and off the field. In the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the team's success during the mid-1980s to early 1990s, the students in this class learned how the team, despite their difficult beginnings and ongoing trials, some self-inflicted, still brought pride to the city of Miami, which had suffered negative publicity following civil disturbances in the city in the early 1980s. I attended this University during the late 1980s and saw the success up close. The team's legendary achievements began under the leadership of Howard Schnellenberger in the 1980s and continued under the guidance of other coaches including Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson. Part - though not all - of the team's spectacular performance, which led to four national championships between 1983 and 1991, had to do with the ways in which some of the African American football players bonded in particular with Johnson, a  white man from a working class background in South Texas.  This dynamic ultimately shows again the complexities of America's racial history. Here are excerpts from the students' in-class short reflections on the ways in which race and class help tell the story of the football team's success and how the second ghetto thesis, ironically, can be seen in that success. Kalynn: "In Miami, [many] African Americans were displaced from their homes because of the development of interstates."
Christin: "[Many] realtors knew the [pay-off in capitalizing] on black [migration] and used it to their benefit.
Alexis: "The [football] players were reflecting life in the city in which they [once] played [Optimist] football for their parents and neighbors."
Roosevelt: "[The] football players were taught how to play football ...at a young age...The big high school games would be played at the Orange Bowl."
Raven: "The community that created their hard lives has resonance with the life that [Coach Jimmy Johnson] lived."
Shanece: "[Many of] the football players came from 'second ghetto' [communities].  Coach Johnson also grew up in a [working class] household."
Lauria: [Some of] Johnson's players were from 'second ghettoes' (ie. they were or their [ancestors] were often displaced by the building of [certain communities specifically for African Americans]. [These communities] had a lot of influence on these [young men].
Aaron: "[Coach] Johnson had a special bond with his players...Although they were of different races, Johnson and his players were able to create their own sense of community."
Shariyah: "A lot of the unfairness [surrounding the players] had to do with the conservativeness of the [United States], [but] a white man ...was like a father figure to the minorities on the team." On another note, some of the students were able to see the fruits of their work on an Afro Brazilian poster exhibition. Some even attended talks by Afro Brazilian scholar Amilcar Pereira. See photos from that exhibit, which they helped curate, in  this course's next blog posting.