Perry Wallace is now a Law professor at American University in Washington, D.C. But in an earlier time, Mr. Wallace was a reluctant basketball pioneer. While Wallace shuns the distinction, he does recognize how his ascension in athletics is an important legacy worth remembering.
Wallace was a star athlete and standout student in the segregated Nashville school district. After leaving high school, Wallace enrolled in Vanderbilt University in 1966. In 1967, he became the first Black varsity athlete to play under scholarship for the Southeastern Conference. To be clear, he was not the first Black player to play in the SEC; that honor belongs to baseball player Stephen Martin at Tulane University.
While Wallace’s desegregation of basketball on a varsity level should have been cause for celebration, it was a virtual nightmare for the player. During contests in the Deep South, Wallace faced death threats and catcalls. Though he was embraced by his teammates, the taunts of opposing schools were scary and disheartening.
Wallace recounts much of his time at Vanderbilt in a memoir, Strong Inside, published in 2014. In interviews, Wallace is modest about his historic achievement and admits to bitterness towards those he felt could have helped him. Wallace’s basketball career was replete with hardships, but eventually he did find some small redemption.
In his final game against Mississippi State in Nashville, Wallace scored 28 points and snagged 27 rebounds. It was a huge game for him, which he dedicated to his late mother who died the year before. Slam dunks were illegal in basketball at the time but Wallace scored his last two points with one. Wallace explained in a NPR profile that he did do to thumb his nose at the racism he faced on the court.
After obtaining his law degree from Columbia University in 1975, Wallace worked as a trial attorney for the Justice Department, then at the Environmental Protection Agency before taking the job at American in 1993. Wallace specializes in environmental law, corporate law, and finance.
(Photo: Vanderbilt University)
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