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From New Hampshire Gazette Third of four parts A story Marshall Bloom wrote for the Amherst Student newspaper. Credit: AMHERST COLLEGE ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS In early 1964, the spring of Marshall Bloom’s sophomore year at Amherst College, a new battleground for civil rights was taking shape in the nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. A quaint community with plenty of Florida schlock, St. Augustine was settled by the Spanish in 1565, decades before Jamest

From Daily Hampshire Gazette Second of four parts President John F. Kennedy arrived at Amherst College by helicopter. Credit: AMHERST COLLEGE ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS When the life force known as Marshall Irving Bloom arrived in the Pioneer Valley from Denver, it was, technically speaking, the 1960s. It just didn’t feel like it. Back in September 1962 at Amherst College, hair was short. Many students hadn’t heard of marijuana. The No. 1 song in America was “Sherry” s

From Daily Hampshire Gazette PAUL BLOOM First of four parts Paul Bloom was mortified. His graduation from Amherst College, just the day before, represented the greatest achievement of his young life. But now, on June 4, 1966, he looked incredulously at the front page of The New York Times and thought his shining future was about to crash. Criticizing Amherst? Publicly protesting against the U.S. government? He would never do that. Bloom had absorbed two commandments from his

Interview on public television WGBY’s “Connecting Point”

From Vice Tony King, will not be wrestling with philosophical questions when he walks out to the mound around noon on Sunday. All week he has been brushing aside the idea that this ceremonial first pitch was significant. “It doesn’t make any difference,” he insists. “It’s just the idea of it, anyway. You let the ball go, and you go down. It’s just something to get the game started.” Watch: The All-Ivy League Ex Marine Trying to Make it to the Majors For weeks, he has been tos

She was not quite 4 when her daddy died. Deep in the recesses of her memory, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, now 30, can still hear his voice. It was a voice that held contrasts: deep but soft, considered but sprinkled with mischief, nuanced with sadness and lilting with joy. Tom Waddell was a star athlete at Springfield College. Courtesy Springfield College Archives She remembers only snippets of conversations. Like the time he sought her advice on the best color for a car he ho

The untold story of a government plot, a maverick college president, and the most important figure of the civil rights era Their one and only meeting lasted barely a minute. On March 26, 1964, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X came to Washington to observe the beginning of the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act. They shook hands. They smiled for the cameras. As they parted, Malcolm said jokingly, “Now you’re going to get investigated.” That, of course, was well underway. Re

Presentation at New England Historical Association, April 26. 2014 Martin delivered the keynote address at a conference with over 100 historians representing schools such as Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Williams, etc.: More ...

Presentation at LBJ Presidential Library Martin made a presentation at the Educator Workshop at the Civil Rights Summit in Austin, Texas. The Civil Rights Summit was probably the largest civil rights conference in our nation’s history with presentations by Presidents Barack Obama, three former Presidents (Carter, Clinton, and George W. Bush) as well as a host of civil rights luminaries (Andrew Young, John Lewis, etc.). He served as the lone moderator for the ensuing hour-plus

WGBY’s “Connecting Point”

Londell Francis, 8, who has sickle cell anemia, cuts the nets with his LIU-Brooklyn teammates. Courtesy of Long Island University-Brooklyn The Sports Grinch is beaming. And why not? The athletic landscape in early 2013 is a veritable carnival of cynicism. Beneath the pedestals are huge piles of rubble. Hope is dying. To the Sports Grinch, the bad times never seemed so good. Manti Te'o playing his heart out for a dying girlfriend -- but the "love of his life" doesn't even exis

Doug Clark is 1-for-11 in his major league career, his lone hit coming in 2006 for the A's. Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images In Hermosillo, Mexico, it is 81 degrees a little after 7 p.m. MT on Thursday night. The stands of the new estadio are packed and raucous. Flags waving. Songs ringing out. Cerveza flowing. Two outs, top of the first inning of the Caribbean Series championship, Latin America's great baseball theater. Up steps left fielder Doug Clark for the Yaquis de Obregon

Marcus Camby has played in 14 games this season with the Knicks. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images The NBA is a test of manhood. It's a league where "power forwards" throw down "slam dunks," where frontcourt players are called "big men," where the preferred defense is "man to man." The most-prized virtue in the league is toughness. So it's only fair to point out that New York Knicks big man and 17-year NBA veteran Marcus Camby has a skeleton in his closet. There is no gentle way of s

You would have needed a well-sharpened knife to cut through this tension. The smoky air in the basketball arena in Lexington, Ky., was thick with anticipation. All eyes focused on the collision of cultures, the will-he-or-won't-he moment of truth. Celtics president and co-owner Walter Brown (left) welcomes Don Barksdale at the Fargo Building in Boston in November 1953 after Barksdale was acquired from the Baltimore Bullets. AP Photo Everyone looked at a single bottle of wate

Matt Torra was invited to spring training this year with the Rays. Mike Janes/Four Seam Images via AP Images Matt Torra has the seven-year itch. No, his marriage to the former Jessica Reed appears to be in great shape. If you ask Torra about his minor league odyssey, you will hear him talking about his wife, their toddler, Isabel, and the second child who is swinging some bats in the on-deck circle. The Torras live together in North Carolina during the season, and afterward

One of the many things they have in common is wealth — lots and lots of it. There is plenty of green to be had in the bluegrass when you are John Calipari and Rick Pitino. But in all deference to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, it is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that fueled coaching’s most bitter rivalry. The road from UMass to bluegrass is a story of out-of-the box thinking (and coaching), of Gucci (and itchy) shoes, and of the one man, the one coach, who helped to launch

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"I want America to be as good as she imagined it." -- President Barack Obama on Christina-Taylor Green, Jan. 12, 2011 Trinity Gonzales of Twentynine Palms, Calif., is the catcher for the Sparks. Courtesy of Gonzales Family Amid the rolling green hills of Cooperstown, N.Y., 22 diamonds are glittering with children at play. The tunnels of fog from Tuesday night have burned off, opening to a sun-sparkled Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 17, a perfect day for baseball. One-hundred-four