Premier League Basketball

And so we have here, here is, (displays photograph) here is my--this is in Oklahoma City [Oklahoma], in, on November 7th in 1955. This is a particular photograph that was done by an Associated Press for--person. This was upon the, the, upon the particular ruling by the Interstate Commerce Commission that basically train travel in, would, would basically no longer be, be segregated. And so this was in the Santa Fe train station, Oklahoma City [Santa Fe Depot, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma], in 1955, and so I'm that young, almost three year old, in my dad's [Charles N. Atkins, Sr.] arms and we were a nice looking Negro family, and we were looking up at a sign that said Negro waiting room. And so this is the whole story about how I was born into Jim Crow. As a, as a young child at the ages of four and five I remember participating in sit-in demonstrations in Oklahoma City, which were 1957, 1958. We had the longest continuous sit-in of demonstration in American history, which was, which was basically prior to Greensboro [North Carolina] in 1960. In Oklahoma City, the NAACP Youth Council led by Miss, Miss Clara Luper, all of us marched, and so as a child I marched. And I have vivid memories of white and colored signs. And, and, and so I also attended an outstanding segregated elementary school, Edwards Elementary School [Oklahoma City, Oklahoma], where I, I got a, a great start and then in 1965, we--our particular family is third or fourth generation Episcopalian, active in the Episcopal church in Oklahoma City. My older brother Edmund [Edmund E. Atkins] who was in that particular photo, was not allowed to attend the Episcopal prep school in Oklahoma City, which is Casady School, which is still absolutely the best school in Oklahoma, Casady School. He was not allowed to attend even though it is an Episcopal school.$$Because he was black?$$Yes. And it was all-white.$$And what year was this?$$This was up until '65 [1965]. In '65 [1965] I was part of four students who integrated Casady School as sixth graders, and it was all students from our church, and which was a black Episcopalian church in Oklahoma City, the wonderful, the wonderful Church of the Redeemer [Episcopal Church of the Redeemer] and so I integrated Casady School, a tremendous education. I studied classical Greek. I studied Latin. I studied French. It was, it was a top notch, you know, more of a New England style prep school with, with chapel every day, uniforms, jackets and ties at chapel and at lunch and I have lifelong friends. It was a tremendously positive experience integrating that.$David Boren was a good man. He was a seatmate of Hannah's [Atkins' mother, Hannah Diggs Atkins] in the Oklahoma Legislature. He was in the, the House of Representatives [Oklahoma House of Representatives], he was one of the youngest governors and he was the close, close friend. I worked for him. He was a good friend of my dad's [Charles N. Atkins, Sr.]. He, he gave a wonderful eulogy at Hannah's funeral, along with the governor and, but we will get to that in our next round.$$Okay.$$But from the, from the Boren office, my dear, my dear late wife Gayle [Gayle Perkins Atkins], she was editorial director at, at Channel 4 [WRC-TV] in D.C. [Washington, D.C.]. She had, she had, she had a particular session with Ann Lewis who is basically Barney Frank's sister, and Lewis was a major, major Democratic Party activist. And she mentioned to Gayle that there was this woman in [U.S.] Congress from Queens [New York] named, named Geraldine Ferraro who was gonna be chair of the Democratic Party Platform Committee, and so Ann Lewis mentioned to Gayle, "You know what, we're doing staff for the, for the Democratic Party Platform Committee," and she asked Gayle, "Do you know anybody who, who, might be good on that staff?" And Gayle said, "Yeah, my husband" (laughter). And so I became right after I worked, I helped David Boren do the response to the State of the Union, I helped him write that, I moved over to the, to the DNC [Democratic National Committee]. This was '83 [1983]. This was basically February of '83 [1983], and I, it was Susan Estrich who was also, who was a year or two, year or two of me--year or two ahead of me at Harvard Law School [Cambridge, Massachusetts], was the first, the first woman to be president of the Harvard Law Review. She was active in, in, in, in Democratic Party politics. And so it was, it was me and Susan Estrich who headed up the, that, that, that staff for the Democratic Party platform. All throughout '83 [1983] and '84 [1984], so it was Jesse Jackson [HistoryMaker Reverend Jesse L. Jackson] campaign, Gary Hart campaign and Walter Mondale campaign and we held maybe ten or fifteen hearings. [HistoryMaker] Richard Arrington who was the, the, the first black mayor of, of Birmingham [Alabama], was the chair of the, was the basically deputy chair and then Geraldine was the chair, so after doing that whole, that whole complex Democratic Party platform with three active Democratic Party--three active presidential campaigns, I'm there in San Francisco [California] at the Democratic, at the, at the San Francisco convention [1984 Democratic National Convention, San Francisco, California], and I'm there in the hotel suite with, with Geraldine. I was there when Walter Mondale called her to join the 1984 ticket, and so I was her first hug. I gave her her first hug and she said, "Charles [HistoryMaker Charles N. Atkins] I want you on the campaign plane with me, I want you there with me." And so I became deputy campaign manager, 1984 presidential campaign and it was a great, eighty-four campaign stops in twenty-five states and a great historical experience, even though we lost, lost forty-nine states, it was a great experience.