Diversity, Part 2
Encyclopedia of University of California 1918 Football Team
Walter Gordon
Polio Victim Lives at Cowell, Attends Classes in Wheelchair
Ed Roberts photograph
"Apology From Jaycees 'No More Racial Bias'"
"Bigotry and the Beauties: Jaycees Snub UC Negro To 'Protect' College Queens"
Walter Gordon was the first African American to receive a JD from the UC Berkeley Law School, the first African American police officer in Berkeley and president of the Berkeley branch of the NAACP. He later became Governor of the Virgin Islands, resigning to become a Federal Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands. During his time at Cal, he was a star of the wrestling team, boxing team, and football team. He was one of the first two African American All-Americans and was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
After graduation, Sam Kai Kee organized sports teams for the local Chinese American community and encouraged his siblings to participate in collegiate sports at Yale and Stanford. His nephew, Kenny Kai-Kee, played basketball for Cal in the 1940s.
– "Encyclopedia of University of California 1918 Football Team"
Ed Roberts was a pioneer in the disability rights movement. At the age of 14, he was paralyzed from the neck down after contracting polio. He was the first student in a wheelchair to attend UC Berkeley. When he had trouble securing housing because of the 800-pound iron lung in which he slept, the director of the campus health service offered him a room at Cowell Hospital. Roberts’ activism led to the creation of the Physically Disabled Students’ Program, the first in the nation. After earning a master’s degree in Political Science, Roberts became director of the Center for Independent Living and eventually the director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.
– "Polio Victim Lives at Cowell, Attends Classes in Wheelchair"
Lynn Mark Sims, junior class vice president and a member of the Californians honor society, was chosen by the Californians to escort one of the eight Jaycees Football Festival Queens to the Berkeley Football Festival in 1963. Six of the eight Jaycees Queens were from the South and some supposedly objected to having a “Negro” escort; Sims was asked to leave the event. The university investigated the event, students picketed the Jaycees meeting and the Berkeley Jaycees eventually apologized.
– "Apology From Jaycees 'No More Racial Bias,'"