Espn putting out a Young Readers bookcalled the fierce 44 . For the undefeated, our platform which is based on race, sports and culture, we had done a digital project in 2017 that was kind of an ode to the first africanamerican president , hence the title the fierce 44 so we had this idea that lets do kind of an all my two in arguably i think the greatest achievement for africanamericans is tobecome president and who else should be on that list . We did a list, an Interactive Digital project and it was well received. Highlydonated. And then Houghton Mifflin harcourt published it. Said could you turn this into a Childrens Book . And because there are not a lot of africanamerican biographies in the genre that was popular, childrens biography collections so they let robert ball have thesebig beautiful illustrations so we edited our digital project and turned it into a book. Whats the format of this book . Its basically short bio sketches with a couple of illustrations and it just gives you enough that they can learn about these tremendous africanamerican achievers and just absorb some of the inspiration and greatness that black americans have contributed to this country. You mentioned you are editorinchief of the undefeated. Thats part of espn. When did it come about and why . We launched in may 2016. It was the idea of a former president at espn john skipper and it was the idea that here we have a digital project that really could serve a loyal over indexing black audience on digital and meanwhile help espn with bring our own aesthetic and sensibility to espn where race, sports and culture intersect. I think sports now is very much about culture to so that came about and i was at the Washington Post as you and i knew each other and after a lot of debate i was presented with this opportunity and i decided to go ahead and give it a shot to essentially have a startup within espn. You were managing editor of the Washington Post and how much debate happenedin your family . A lot of debate. Particularly my wife but sometimes you just disrupt your own career and want to do Something Different and take a littlebit of a leap off of that cliff. And try Something Different so i decided to do that and its been fantastic. To be clear, why 44 biographical sketches . It was a play off the 44th president. He was exiting the white house and we said we will do 44. It was originally called the undefeated 44 so thesewere our selections, staff selections and there was a lot of fierce debate. You can imagine because there are many, many more than 44 race africanamericans. We dont say this is the greatest black achievers ever. We dont try to put that on. These are just 44 that we looked at that fit the sensibility of the first africanamericanpresident in the sense that heres something, they did something pioneering. Something disrupting. They were in some cases id say noisy geniuses or quiet innovators but they did something extraordinary in their own space and it was believed me, it was knock down drag out debate among our staff and we kind of did it democratically where to get on the list you had to convince the group that this person should be on the list and if you were going to add someone you had to say well then, who are we going to take off and it was a lot of back and forth and obviously a lot of people were left off but a lot of great people are on this list. What do you want Young Leaders to know about barack obama being besidesbeing the first black american president . I was at the nba allstar weekend in chicago and happened to have been at an event by my colleague at espn that was hosting and it had barack obama was there with chris paul and kevin love and it was a discussion about what athletes do and how they use their influence on issues and it was a reminder of how, what someone like obama does to elevate a discussion. He was interacting with athletes and you could watch the athletes in the sense of thinking more deeply about how they could influence and use their own power for good on social issues. Its a fascinating discussion. Its hard to become president. I dont care who you are. We are watching that now. Its difficult and a long journey to be the first africanamerican to do that is a signature achievement that many people thought they would never see in their lifetimes. Thats always stands i think at the top of the mountain. But the majority of the profiles in the fierce 44 are not athletes. We have six athletes and even those, they are people who are left out but i think the athletes we do havein the list , Serena Williams, simone biles who is arguably the greatest gymnast ever. I think she is the greatest gymnast ever recordwise. Michael jordan who not only was he the first black athlete outside of oj who really set a model for how athletes could do in business and represent big corporate brands and he had a style and a kind of swagger in addition to his highflying ability. There are a lot of reasons why various people got picked and we could say it was a lot of great athletes. Hank aaron is not on the list and he could easily have been on that list but i think that the athletes we do have our amazing. Who is not in the bookthat you personally wanted in the book . Your choices get picked. No, they didnt. Some people that i argued for , i dont think there was much argument but i think look, ali. Some people were obvious. Ali was an obvious one. Thurgood marshall because sometimes i think Thurgood Marshalls contributions to breaking the back of jim crow through the legal system and traveling dark roads and really going into allwhite courtrooms and really doing it under death threats. It was really important to have the legal dimension while everybody else was out in the streets and protesting and doing sit ins. So he was one of my favorites to be on that list. I think i argued for jesse jackson. As a forerunner to barack obama and he kind of first set the idea that it was possible. A lot of people didnt want to run for president and also as a great orator and someone whos inspired many generations to have hope and faith. So there was a lot of debate. People getting knocked down and added on. And it was very spirited. Youre the coauthor of a book on Justice Clarence thomas. Was he considered for this the fierce 44 . He was raised to and as a Supreme Court justice he was someone who was raised. There were a lot of people who were raised. I think we were mindful also of not trying to make these choices based on ideology or based on factors that hey, this person was isolated from the race. We tried to look at achievement and what was done and obviously with 44, youre missing a lot ofpeople. Tiger woods is not on here. I think Louis Armstrong is another that was debated. But Duke Ellington isin here. A part of it, the process was we thought about we dont want to have it overly weighted with civil rights or activists figures because you could have filled anentire book there. We were sensitive to whats missing. I probably think we added people. Wrote Richard Allen is in there in part because certainly religion is such an important founding. Founder of the ame church and religion is so important to black communities and still is and churches play such a role. We probably could have had more religious figures at some point. I may have raised it, we dont have enough religious figures. Military. Davis is a decorated general is in their and first africanamerican general. This was a nod to the fact of our contributions to the military and fighting and defending the country. There is a connection between jesse owens and Benjamin Davis who operated during that same time period but came back to the us to the same old world. To the same old world and jesse owens and many of those other olympians from the 1936 olympics who came back and were not treated in the way that we are accustomed to olympic champions being welcomed. Jesse owens returned home to the oppression of jim crow , working at basically menial jobs like racing horses and pumping gas. Just kind of as a sideshow. That was a really tragic outcome for somebody who had essentially, was regarded as defeating hitler and really embarrassing hitler in the gains in germany. I wanted to ask who was Robert Abbott . It was a great newspaper editor. The chicago defender was one of the most important publications in america for black americans and it really during a period when pablo where there was a migration. Chicago and really nationally , being kind of a beacon for truth and leading the way so robert added definitely deserves and of course a journalist so were going to have some journalism representation. What was the importanceof the defender . I think black newspapers at the time were really, africanamericans werent working at the white papers. This is where we got our news and there was like the amsterdam news and of course the afroamerican and other papers around the country were black papers. They were out covering the civil rights movement. And covering injustice in many of those reporters that were going and down in the deep south were just like thurgood marshall. They had to figure out how to stay in places and file their stories in dangerous places so they were also under threat and had to do their work under threat. I think they were really important, the black newspaper in chicago, the defender standing above all as leaders in the civil rights movement. Kevin merida, what wasthe toughest part about transferring from Washington Post in politics into sports in politics . I was a sports fan. I followed sports closely. As managing editor i oversaw the news and features coverage so that includes the sports department. Id written a lot about sports as a feature writer so i felt comfortable in the sports world. I didnt feel too out ofplace there. I think the biggest difficulty transition is that youre out of place like the Washington Post that is so news centered and its going to a startup that essentially did not havea culture. We had to build everything on the ground floor so when youre starting something new , youre encountering all kinds of challenges that go along with that. But it was a great transition. Why is it calledundefeated . Its based off a maya angelou quote that we may encounter many defeats but we will not be defeated. That sometimes you need to suffer defeat to know what you can become and it was really i think both from a sports standpoint and from a race standpoint really kind of came together as an ideal. Sports, our kids lose. We hugged them. Theyre going to lose games and we need to let them know this is the end of the world and there will be another opportunity and just the resilience of what black americans have done in this country, their resilience and their triumph over obstacles, how it was reflected in the quote so the undefeated felt like that. There are six athletes featured in the fierce 44 our athletes inherently role models . I think whether they want to be or not they are for many people because they play in public. They are out doing the work in public and they interact fans and fans watch them do people pay money to see the game so just kids look up to them because many kids grew up playing sports they wished they could become Serena Williams or look at coco goff now. Shes lighting up tennis. And she was inspired bySerena Williams. Naomi osaka is inspired by Serena Williams so you see that kind of line. From out the against into Serena Williams i think that athletes, you look up to them and you want to become them and so they are a role model. What about colin cafferty, was considered for this book . There was discussion about cabinet and i think thats certainly a point in time, he has become a symbol for activism for black athletes now and certainly sacrificed his career in order to make a point about Police Brutality and oppression and Racial Injustice so i think that somebody who is kind of the modern day ali, sacrificed something at least it seemed that wayby many. He was definitely considered. There were 2 people in this book that i had never heard of im ashamed to say one was on Michelle Bost you, placing his lastingdirectly. Was kind of a avantgarde painter. He really wasnt right now some of his paintings, they were up there at the highest resale value. He died young and he was somebody that like some young geniuses, they guide to young and never know what they could have become but even him, we kind of put him in as a disruptor because there were a lot of other artists and i know a couple of people asked, im going to call Jesse Washington out and he thought there should have been other notable painters like romer bearden or others were more deserving of being an artist so elizabeth. I think in every genre you have success. You have so much success that youre making choices for lots of Different Reasons and i like the fact that we have some bags where people would not expect a person to be on the list. So disruptor was important to be included. I think disruption is good. I think courage, bravery or taking a chance and going into places where others feel that others havent gone. I think all of those be considered. It certainly achievements is an success was important. So there was just a lot of factors. We didnt have any 40. It was just really a field of debate and weakness mason selections. The other one i had not heard of, doctor charles through. Is a pioneer in medicine. I know that in nashville, and he represents the importance of medical discovery and the sciences and our contributions there and i think the way we thought about that was charles through is somebody that we could have had a lot of other people. George washington carver, we could have had people that were in the realm of kind of scientific invention and discovery but he was a representation. Who do you hope reads this . I hope kids, parents read it with their children and i think everybody, kids of all races and ethnicities. Think these are black americans who shook up the world but its our history so if American History and i hope that it everywhere and learn something. Beautiful illustrations and here. Robert ball hes an artist that we contracted with, and it was fantastic. Kevin merida is the editorinchief of the undefeated and is also one of the authors on the fierce 44 black americans that shook upthe world. Coming up next, and author discussion on the history of pandemics and then historian matthew out you article Robert Kennedy visit to appalachia in the winter of 1967 later journalist Catherine Stewart argues that religious nationalists are waging political war on american democracy and institutions. Visit merida booktv. Org for moreinformation or check your cable guy
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