Progress against racism is far from absolute

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A week ago in this space, George Reed was celebrated as the favourite player of Saskatchewan Roughriders fans, as determined by an informal social-media poll.

The results were hardly surprising, considering that the legendary fullback — always the epitome of class — can elicit a standing ovation simply by quietly, modestly walking into a room.

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He last donned No. 34 for the Green and White in 1975, buthis phenomenal popularity endures, even among people who never saw him play.

There was a time, however, when Reed’s presence was not universally welcomed, through no fault of his own.

The racism to which Reed and his family were subjected was such that he likened Regina to “the heart of Alabama” during a 1967 interview with the Toronto Telegram.

When interviewed 12 years ago for West Riders Best, my book on the 1966 Grey Cup champions, Reed talked expansively and candidly about racism as it existed in our community more than a half-century ago.

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“I’m not blaming the city today,” he emphasized. “I’m saying the way it was and I’m happy to say that things have progressed for the better.”

Even so, many more positive steps need to be taken — a point that has been made during Black Lives Matter rallies that were held Tuesday, Friday and Sunday in Regina.

People march as part of a Black Lives Matter rally on Friday that went from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to the Legislative Building. BRANDON HARDER/Regina Leader-Post

The rallies were in support of demonstrations against racism and police brutality — such asthe May 25 death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, while in custody in Minneapolis.

Floyd was handcuffed, but was nonetheless pinned to the ground for nearly nine minutes by a white police officer’s knee to the throat.

Demonstrations have ensued in Canada and the United States. Comparisons have been made to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Even at that time, many black athletes found life more comfortable in Canada than it was in their home country. Nonetheless, there were more than a few episodes of racism.

“There is flagrant discrimination against Negroes in Regina,” Reed, who grew up in Reston, Wash., was quoted as saying in the Telegram article.

“I have come face-to-face with more racial problems in my five years in Regina than I ever had living in a suburb of Seattle. In the beginning I couldn’t find anyone who would rent me an apartment.”

The situation was so deplorable, in fact, that Regina Leader-Post sports columnist John Robertson articulated his disgust in the Aug. 4, 1963 edition.

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Robertson documented the difficulties faced by three black Roughriders players — Reed, Ed Buchanan and Bill Gray — in finding a place to live.

Buchanan, according to Robertson, was “turned down flat when he applied to rent a furnished apartment. Earlier, so was George Reed, for the same reason. I don’t know how you feel about it, but this makes me a little sick inside.”

Robertson urged fans to provide Reed, Buchanan and Gray with assistance in finding apartments — as they eventually did — while noting: “I am embarrassed for a few of my bigoted fellow Reginans.”

Reed began to notice a difference in 1965, when he rushed for 1,768 yards — still a franchise single-season record — en route to being named the CFL’s most outstanding player.

“All of a sudden I didn’t have a colour because I won the Schenley in ’65 and that was the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Reed told me in 2008.

“It was difficult walking into certain places that everybody didn’t know who George Reed was. I’d get treated one way and then, all of a sudden, somebody would recognize me and it was a totally different way that I was treated.

“That probably was as hard to take as anything because I hadn’t changed colours. I just had become a pretty good football player. It bothered me, and it bothered me the way other ones were treated.”

Consider the example of Robert Ellis (Stonewall) Jackson, who in 1930 became the first black Roughrider. Some of the phrasing in 90-year-old stories about his brief time in Regina is cringe-worthy.

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Seventeen years elapsed before another black player, Gabe Patterson, played for the Roughriders.

A dynamic playmaker on both sides of the ball, Patterson was a West all-star in 1947 and 1948. Regardless, Patterson was not invited back to the Roughriders in 1949.

Bob Calder and Garry Andrews, in a 1984 team history known as Rider Pride, wrote that “some of the executive members were slow to accept integration.”

Former Roughriders halfback Sully Glasser, who was interviewed for Rider Pride, said “it is a story somewhat similar to Jackie Robinson’s. The ice had to be broken with Gabe.”

The Roughriders were ice-breakers a generation ago, when Roy Shivers was hired as the general manager.

Shivers, who joined the team on Dec. 23, 1999, hired Danny Barrett as head coach early the following year. They became the first black coach-GM duo in football history.

Their presence, as applaudable as it was, did expose some racists in our midst.

I recall speaking with one man who had owned season tickets for several decades. When we crossed paths early in the Shivers-Barrett era, I casually asked the long-time fan what he thought of the Roughriders’ season to date.

To my shock and dismay, I was bluntly informed by the man that he had cancelled his season tickets, solely because he did not wish to support a regime led by two black men.

As a CFL personnel man, Shivers was with teams that recruited or acquired black quarterbacks such as Henry Burris, Kevin Glenn, Kerry Joseph and Darian Durant.

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Joseph and Durant went on to become Grey Cup-winning quarterbacks in Saskatchewan. Durant called the signals in 2013, when the Roughriders’ second black head coach — Corey Chamblin — guided the team to a home-field Grey Cup win.

Not once did I ever hear anyone disparage Chamblin on the basis of ethnicity. But, from time to time, I would receive (and quickly delete) emails that included bigoted references to the quarterback.

The vast majority of fans, however, embrace Roughriders players without any evidence of intolerance. Seven of the top 15 players listed in last week’s poll — Reed (first), Durant (third), Don Narcisse (seventh), Joey Walters (ninth) and Richie Hall (11th), Eddie Lowe (tied for 13th) and Chris DeFrance (15th) — are black.

Many of them spent significant time in Regina outside of football season. Walters, for one, has told me several times about how wonderfully he was treated by the people of Saskatchewan.

That would seem to underline Reed’s point, emphasized in 2008, that positive steps have been taken in this part of the world.

But it only takes an occasional email, or even a casual conversation, to offer a discomforting reminder that the progress is far from absolute.