In mid-June, as the pandemic surged across the country, hundreds of students were living on Liberty University’s campus. Tayvion “Tank” Land was one of them, taking a summer math class with about 10 other students—half of them his football teammates. One Thursday morning, class was partway through when the instructor told one of Land’s teammates that he needed a tutor. Sensing some reticence, Land said, the instructor followed up with an attempt at a joke. “Don’t be scared,” he allegedly told...

It’s been a few years since the Pac-12 Conference has had a real impact on the national college football conversation. That changed on Sunday, when players from the conference published a list of 17 demands under the hashtag “We Are United.” They range from simple requests like health protections during the pandemic to more ambitious ones, including that 50 percent of the conference’s football revenue be distributed among the players. If those demands aren’t met, the players said, they’re...

On March 9, 1998, John Lewis returned to the site of his bloodiest, most brutal confrontation in the fight for civil rights. Lewis had shown up in Selma, Alabama, that day to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march, first with a dedication for the old church where the march started, and then to receive a key to the city. Waiting there for Lewis was an old, now bowed, adversary: Selma Mayor Joseph “Joe” Smitherman. Smitherman had only recently been sworn in as mayor when...

Four months ago, a week after the Super Bowl, the Undefeated—ESPN’s website dedicated to race, sports, and culture—posted a video of a conversation between former NFL receiver Victor Cruz, venerable sports columnist William C. Rhoden, and Houston Texans star Deshaun Watson, among others. The video was part of the Undefeated’s season-long media project titled “The Year of the Black QB,” and early in the clip, one of the panelists wondered aloud why current black NFL quarterbacks had not...

In the summer of 2017, Melvin Carter III was in the midst of his first mayoral campaign in St. Paul, Minnesota. A native of the city and a member of the city council for nearly a decade, Carter was then the presumptive favorite among a field of six strong candidates. Then August came. Carter already had a contentious relationship with the city’s police department and its largest union. Unlike his most formidable opponent, Carter advocated for reforms instead of hiring more officers and wanted...