Tigerland: 1968–1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing

The year 1968 was a turning point in American social history with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the war continuing to rage in Vietnam, and Nixon's southern strategy stoking racial tensions. All of these play a role in Haygood's (The Butler) unique look at an Ohio high school's grand achievement of state championships in both basketball and baseball on the 50th anniversary. Columbus, OH, where East High School stood, was a severely segregated city in 1968. Haygood weaves the political and cultural events of the Sixties as he describes the rise of a white basketball coach, Bob Hart, and his all-African American team straight to a state championship. The narrative also explores the achievements on the baseball diamond in the spring of 1969. Haygood's goal to connect the local stories of Columbus to the wider national conversation on racial integration is successful and illuminating.