As the civil rights movement roils the nation, in a quiet Illinois city, Wilbert Walters goes solo to uplift his race by launching Aurora Sundowners Track Club for marginalized Black girls. He sets out to teach the fundamentals of excellence and to prepare his athletes to thrive in a world preset to believe they are extraneous. On the way, they take Junior Olympic medals.
Coach Walters chronicles the glories and defeats of his life to a White author as both set out to understand what it all means. It is his true story of living two lives simultaneously. In one, he is esteemed and awarded. In the other, where he is invisible, disaster hits twice. The second time, he is prepared.
This complex, indomitable hero is Everyman. His truth belongs to anyone who has fought to be heard, anyone who is baffled by the story of race in America, and anyone who believes every child has potential.
Autorentext
Maureen McKane worked as a columnist for the Aurora Beacon News and a mental health blogger on mckaneassociates.com. A lifelong interest in understanding racism started in Jim Crow Virginia when she was in sixth grade. After settling in Aurora, Illinois, she headed the nonprofit board of Aurora Community Study Circles for interracial dialogue. Maureen is now a retired psychotherapist and author. She received her MSW degree from University of Illinois Chicago and a two-year postgrad certificate in family therapy from the Family Institute at Northwestern University. She sits on the Aurora Human Relations Commission.