Howard Professor Uses Athletics to Rein in New Race Relations in Hometown

Dr. Marshall Banks' basketball career began more than 50 years ago in Ashland, Ky., but his story is just now being told. Banks, a professor of kinesiology, biomechanics and motor learning in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Leisure, has been chosen to be part of an upcoming basketball documentary, "Shoot!".

On Aug. 28, Banks will return to his hometown to film an interview for the documentary, discussing his experiences as a basketball player during the 1950s. The film is being produced by the PBS station in Ashland and focuses on the stories and social dynamics of the town's three best high school teams in the 1950s, including Booker T. Washington's team, The Hornets, where Banks was captain and top scorer during his junior and senior years.

Banks was selected to be a part of the film due to his excellence as an athlete and his contributions to the history of basketball in Ashland, said David E. Carter, the film's writer and director. "Marshall Banks was instrumental in the integration of sports in Kentucky during his high school and college years," Carter said. "He was also a pioneer."

Banks' pioneered a new era of race relations in Ashland due to his persistence in athletics. His basketball career has assumed a legacy beyond his skill as a player. As a black athlete, he maneuvered through the racial tensions of the late 50s and was a participant in the integration movement. Banks grew up in Ashland and began playing basketball in elementary school. By the time Banks entered high school, the team's coach was familiar with his prowess as a player and put him on the varsity team.

"It was a tremendous feeling because I was playing with my friends who were much older than I," said Banks. Washington was the city's only black school with the city's only black basketball team that competed against all the white schools in the city. Although Ashland was segregated, Banks was able to take courses at Ashland High School, the city's largest white school. He was also familiar with several of the basketball players there.

"We played on the sandlot with all the basketball players in Ashland all summer. So we really weren't intimidated in playing with them," Banks said. "We were just separated when school started." But when the two teams, Ashland and Washington, were set to play each other, and Washington won, Banks wasn't sure of how his white classmates at Ashland would react; the next day they congratulated him.

After high school, Banks was recruited to play at Morehead State in Morehead, Ky., where he became the first black student to receive financial aid from the University and to compete in the Ohio Valley Conference, an NCAA Division I Conference. At Morehead State, Banks was the only black basketball player, but the publicity he received from local news outlets in his hometown allowed him to become familiar with the university's players and professors before he arrived on campus.

"It made it a lot easier to transition," Banks said.  Looking back, Banks says his achievements are weighted with a significance that he hadn't realized at the time. Sports in the late 50s, as he views them now, were a huge catalyst in the desegregation movement mandated by the 1954 Civil Rights Act. "I think a lot of the presidents of universities were trying to find this easy transition," he said. "Part of the 1954 legislation was ‘with all deliberate speed,' some of them didn't adhere and so they used sports as that particular transition."

Banks has been a faculty member at Howard since 1978, and hopes his past will set an example for the students he teaches today. "I constantly remind them that the 1954 civil rights decision to integrate schools and the 1964 civil rights action - that was a major change in the country. I was just a part of the beginning of that and I encourage them to understand that they still have responsibility," Banks said.

Howard graduate student, Chibuzo Ibeabuchi, remembers his time in Banks' kinesiology and motor learning courses during undergrad. Banks taught his students the value of being persistent and reminded them of his own experience with racism and success. "Dr. Banks told us to exceed and excel as far as we can and never let anything stop us," Ibeabuchi said. "We're at a time now when we can go do what ever we want."

Booker T. Washington high school no longer exists. It was demolished after the success of the integration movement.