During the 1950s, a group of ambitious young African Americans enrolled at Ohio University, a predominantly white school in Athens, Ohio. Years later, eighteen of them decided to share their stories, recalling the joys and challenges of living on a white campus before the civil rights era.
An avid reader and local history buff, Betty Hollow has been on the staff at Ohio University since 1975. She enjoys both small-town life and the liveliness of the busy campus.
“Soulful Bobcats… is a valuable, highly readable collection of oral
histories from African-American students during the postwar years….
(It) should be on every Bobcat’s shelf. Indeed, it should be of
interest to all who care about the history of African Americans in
higher education.”
*Ohio Today*
“Soulful Bobcats makes clear that while OU was making progress
against institutional racism in the years after World War II, it
still had a long road to travel…. While it's clear that being
treated as second-class citizens or worse was infuriating and
demeaning, the Soulful Bobcats' memories are sometimes funny,
sometimes rueful, and relentlessly upbeat. They patiently fielded
questions from curious white classmates about what it's like to be
black, and took insults from professors as a spur to do even better
in class. Most of all, they relied on each other.”
*The Athens News*
“Thank you for Soulful Bobcats. Like found treasure, it captures a
valuable glimpse into the decade of black Bobcats who set the stage
for my own generation's adventures in Athens. As I thumb through
its pages I am constantly reminded of how much we stood on their
shoulders in order to get to where we are now.”
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