For #BlackHistoryMonth 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center is highlighting the liberation, creativity, resilience and intersecting identities of Black people.

Magic Johnson | Trude Lamb | Patricio Manuel | Oscar Robertson | Jason Wright

In Sports

Athletes who have made history in and out of uniform.

Magic Johnson

After a storied NBA career, Magic Johnson has focused on activism and philanthropy as well as his entrepreneurial ventures. (Credit: Walter Iooss Jr./ Getty Images)

Former NBA player Magic Johnson, known to many as the greatest point guard of all time, played 13 seasons of professional basketball and was a three-time winner of both the NBA MVP Award and the NBA Finals MVP Award, and a member of the 1992 gold medal U.S. Olympic team.

In 1991, Johnson was diagnosed with HIV. Despite his efforts to continue playing, he faced a lot of backlash from fellow players who wanted to see him retire. Johnson officially retired from his NBA career in 1996. Soon after, Johnson went public with his diagnosis, which played a major role in dispelling the widespread stereotype at the time that HIV was a “gay disease.” Johnson became an activist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, advocating for HIV/AIDS prevention and safe sex. In 2009, Ebony magazine named Johnson, who previously owned part of the Lakers and currently owns shares in the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the most influential Black businessmen in the country.

Trude Lamb

Thanks to the efforts of student Trude Lamb, pictured with her track coach, Dennis Teuber, Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, Texas, was renamed Tyler Legacy High School. (Credit: Jamie Maldonado)

In 2020, Trude Lamb, a track and cross-country star at Robert E. Lee High School in Texas, wrote a letter to her school board stating that she will no longer be wearing her school jersey. As a student from Ghana at a school named after a slave-owning Confederate general, she felt uncomfortable playing sports and attending a school wearing the name of someone who participated in the oppression and abuse of her community.

Lamb’s letter brought widespread attention to the issue, which even led to a protest on the day of the board meeting. Her efforts prevailed, and the school changed its name, eliminating all traces of Robert E. Lee.

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Patricio ‘Pat’ Manuel

Patricio Manuel, the first publicly transgender pro boxer, won his first fight in the men’s professional boxing division. (Credit: Brandon Magpantay/Imagn)

Patricio Manuel is the first publicly transgender boxer to participate in a professional boxing match. Before transitioning, Manuel was a five-time national champion in the amateur women’s division and competed in the first U.S. women’s boxing trials for the 2012 Olympics. In 2013, Manuel began his medical transition under the USA Boxing and International Olympic Committee guidelines, returning to the ring in 2016 to win his first fight in the men’s professional boxing division.

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Oscar Robertson

Thanks to Oscar Robertson’s advocacy efforts, NBA players were granted the ability to negotiate their own contracts and compensation. (Credit: AP Images)

Oscar Robertson, aka “the Big O,” is considered to be one of the top NBA players of all time. Robertson was not just an NBA player or the only member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, he was also a labor activist and the first Black president of a national sports or entertainment labor union, serving as president of the National Basketball Players Association in the 1960s and 1970s.

Robertson’s legacy also includes his advocacy efforts, which contributed to a 1976 court settlement, often referred to as the “Oscar Robertson Rule,” which granted NBA players free agency and the ability to negotiate their own contracts and compensation. As a founding member of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, Johnson worked to ensure that retired NBA players received fair pension benefits and medical care.

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Jason Wright

A former NFL running back, Jason Wright today is president of the league’s Washington Commanders. (Credit: Getty Images)

In 2020, Jason Wright became the first Black NFL team president when he was appointed to the Washington Football Team, now known as the Washington Commanders. Wright was also the youngest president to ever be appointed to an NFL team. Wright earned his MBA from the University of Chicago and worked at McKinsey & Company as a culture and diversity adviser. Wright’s leadership experience dates back to his time as a player in the league, when he was team captain of the Arizona Cardinals and served as their National Football League Players Association representative.

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