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Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South
This fast-paced, richly detailed biography, based on more than eighty interviews, digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a more complicated and profound story of sports pioneering than we've come to expect from the genre. Perry Wallace's unusually insightful and honest introspection reveals his inner thoughts throughout his journey.
Wallace entered kindergarten the year that "Brown v. Board of Education" upended "separate but equal." As a twelve-year- old, he snuck downtown to watch the sit-ins at Nashville's lunch counters. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Wallace entered high school, and later saw the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. On March 16, 1966, his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first integrated state tournament----the same day Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky Wildcats lost to the all-black Texas Western Miners in an iconic NCAA title game.
The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt recruited him, Wallace courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the SEC. His experiences on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be nothing like he ever imagined.
On campus, he encountered the leading civil rights figures of the day, including Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Robert Kennedy---and he led Vanderbilt's small group of black students to a meeting with the university chancellor to push for better treatment.
On the basketball court, he experienced an Ole Miss boycott and the rabid hate of the Mississippi State fans in Starkville. Following his freshman year, the NCAA instituted "the Lew Alcindor rule," which deprived Wallace of his signature move, the slam dunk.
Despite this attempt to limit the influence of a rising tide of black stars, the final basket of Wallace's college career was a cathartic and defiant dunk, and the story Wallace told to the Vanderbilt Human Relations Committee and later "The Tennessean" was not the simple story of a triumphant trailblazer that many people wanted to hear. Yes, he had gone from hearing racial epithets when he appeared in his dormitory to being voted as the university's most popular student, but, at the risk of being labeled "ungrateful," he spoke truth to power in describing the daily slights and abuses he had overcome and what Martin Luther King had called "the agonizing loneliness of a pioneer."
Wallace entered kindergarten the year that "Brown v. Board of Education" upended "separate but equal." As a twelve-year- old, he snuck downtown to watch the sit-ins at Nashville's lunch counters. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Wallace entered high school, and later saw the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. On March 16, 1966, his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first integrated state tournament----the same day Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky Wildcats lost to the all-black Texas Western Miners in an iconic NCAA title game.
The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt recruited him, Wallace courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the SEC. His experiences on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be nothing like he ever imagined.
On campus, he encountered the leading civil rights figures of the day, including Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Robert Kennedy---and he led Vanderbilt's small group of black students to a meeting with the university chancellor to push for better treatment.
On the basketball court, he experienced an Ole Miss boycott and the rabid hate of the Mississippi State fans in Starkville. Following his freshman year, the NCAA instituted "the Lew Alcindor rule," which deprived Wallace of his signature move, the slam dunk.
Despite this attempt to limit the influence of a rising tide of black stars, the final basket of Wallace's college career was a cathartic and defiant dunk, and the story Wallace told to the Vanderbilt Human Relations Committee and later "The Tennessean" was not the simple story of a triumphant trailblazer that many people wanted to hear. Yes, he had gone from hearing racial epithets when he appeared in his dormitory to being voted as the university's most popular student, but, at the risk of being labeled "ungrateful," he spoke truth to power in describing the daily slights and abuses he had overcome and what Martin Luther King had called "the agonizing loneliness of a pioneer."
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
52 people are currently reading
642 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Maraniss
22 books55 followersAndrew Maraniss is the New York Times bestselling author of STRONG INSIDE, a biography of Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC. The original, adult edition of the book received the Lillian Smith Book Award and the RFK Book Awards' Special Recognition Prize, while the Middle Grade adaptation was named one of the Top Biographies and Top Sports Books for Youth by the American Library Association. Andrew's next book (Nov. 2019) GAMES OF DECEPTION, is the true story of the first U.S. Olympic basketball team, at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Andrew is a contributor to ESPN's race and sports website, TheUndefeated.com, and is a Visiting Author at Vanderbilt University Athletics. He lives in Brentwood, Tenn., with his wife and two young children. Follow him on Twitter @trublu24.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
August 12, 2016
(just a smol preface: i got sent this book, not for review, but because it's my summer reading for school #rip)
this is a really ambitious biography. it attempts to encompass so much time, so many events, and so many themes. as revealed through the subtitle of the book, this is mainly about two things: basketball and race relations. i would gladly read a 400+ page book about race relations. i would never voluntarily read a 400+ page book about basketball.
andrew maraniss is a fairly talented writer. he spent many years gathering mountains of great information and material, and he crafts a really cohesive and satisfying biography. however, i think he does a bad job of making me care about the topic. i'm impressed by non-fiction writers who make their books accessible to the public by keeping it engaging for all audiences (i'm thinking of malcolm gladwell). but maraniss doesn't make me care about basketball. he himself clearly cares about the sport--that much is apparent--but anytime the topic would switch back to a specific game or other elements of basketball, i would once again be frustrated that i was being forced to read this book.
it's also an extremely detailed book. maraniss describes so many events and discusses so many people who are in the very periphery of perry wallace's life, and you're able to see the thin thread that connects these tangents to the main story, so it's not like it's completely irrelevant, but when you're already in the mindset of "wow i wish i weren't being forced to read this book," anything that isn't directly about the main subject feels a lil irrelevant.
as mentioned before, i would happily read a book about race. i can never exaggerate the importance of race imo, so i loved the parts of the book that were dedicated to learning about black students' struggles and administrators' responses and basketball crowds' taunts. perry wallace is seriously such an admirable man, and i'm glad andrew maraniss wrote this book about him, because his story isn't one that should be overlooked. there were parts where i teared up bc a) i'm a crybaby and b) wallace had to go through so much trash that people shouldn't have to go through. tbh i'm a lil surprised vandy published this, bc it's not like vandy was all that progressive of a school and it's painted in a pretty... honest light. but y'know, it's also impressive that they published it. like they're acknowledging that they were a lil sucky in the past but they're trying to make a better present and future.
tl;dr: good story about a cool guy and lots of interesting discussion about race, but ultimately dragged down by many peripheral side notes and detailed basketball passages
this is a really ambitious biography. it attempts to encompass so much time, so many events, and so many themes. as revealed through the subtitle of the book, this is mainly about two things: basketball and race relations. i would gladly read a 400+ page book about race relations. i would never voluntarily read a 400+ page book about basketball.
andrew maraniss is a fairly talented writer. he spent many years gathering mountains of great information and material, and he crafts a really cohesive and satisfying biography. however, i think he does a bad job of making me care about the topic. i'm impressed by non-fiction writers who make their books accessible to the public by keeping it engaging for all audiences (i'm thinking of malcolm gladwell). but maraniss doesn't make me care about basketball. he himself clearly cares about the sport--that much is apparent--but anytime the topic would switch back to a specific game or other elements of basketball, i would once again be frustrated that i was being forced to read this book.
it's also an extremely detailed book. maraniss describes so many events and discusses so many people who are in the very periphery of perry wallace's life, and you're able to see the thin thread that connects these tangents to the main story, so it's not like it's completely irrelevant, but when you're already in the mindset of "wow i wish i weren't being forced to read this book," anything that isn't directly about the main subject feels a lil irrelevant.
as mentioned before, i would happily read a book about race. i can never exaggerate the importance of race imo, so i loved the parts of the book that were dedicated to learning about black students' struggles and administrators' responses and basketball crowds' taunts. perry wallace is seriously such an admirable man, and i'm glad andrew maraniss wrote this book about him, because his story isn't one that should be overlooked. there were parts where i teared up bc a) i'm a crybaby and b) wallace had to go through so much trash that people shouldn't have to go through. tbh i'm a lil surprised vandy published this, bc it's not like vandy was all that progressive of a school and it's painted in a pretty... honest light. but y'know, it's also impressive that they published it. like they're acknowledging that they were a lil sucky in the past but they're trying to make a better present and future.
tl;dr: good story about a cool guy and lots of interesting discussion about race, but ultimately dragged down by many peripheral side notes and detailed basketball passages
January 3, 2016
Thank you Andrew Maraniss for writing so much more than a sports bio! I bought this book for my husband, who had Perry Wallace as a law professor whom he greatly admired. My husband wasn't ready to start the book, because he was finishing up another one, so I started flipping through it. I read the first page and was immediately drawn into the world that Maraniss paints so vividly. This is really a story about race in America, and what it was like for the generation coming of age during the Civil Rights Movement. How they worked so hard to forge a path for all of us, but how they were met with everything from violence to "benign" neglect (and how the latter can be so psychologically damaging). This book brought everything to life and moved me to tears more than once in hearing what Perry Wallace endured. Reading The Warmth of Other Suns had a similar effect on me. This is really an outstanding piece of writing and particularly resonates with me in the aftermath of the Charleston Massacre. Maraniss has such empathy for his subject and writes with great wit and senstivity about a story of a pioneer that had gone untold and unexamined for far too long. You can tell that he worked on this book for 8 years--the depth of the interviews and the masterful way that he paints a picture of Nashville (and the Vanderbilt campus in particular) during the late 1960s.
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September 24, 2017Amazing. If you like basketball or American history, I highly recommend this book. It is about how how sports and race connected in the south in the 60s.
May 30, 2015
As a Vanderbilt professor and former member with Perry Wallace of the university's Athletics Advisory Committee, this was an absolutely fascinating read; but I think it would be of great interest to readers with little or no prior knowledge of Vanderbilt, basketball, Nashville, or the Southeastern Conference. It is really a wonderful story about grace, perseverance, justice, human nature, foregiveness, social relations beyond just race to include history and dynamics not only between races but within them across SES and region, and the important role individual lives can make (and the critical role at least a little social support of those individuals can make) in shaping the culture of an institution, city and region for the better. This book tells a compelling story of one such life-- Perry's-- but touches on others (Alexander Heard, Walter Murray, even Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael) as well. Read this book and you will be a better person for it--how often can one claim that?
September 21, 2016
I actually decided to read this book because it was required reading for all incoming Vanderbilt freshmen-and I do like to keep up with the kids. If you are a basketball fan in the South-you will recognize all the scenes from this book-SEC campus gyms in Mississippi and Louisiana, Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, life in campus dorms--even though the events occurred in the late 1960s. The book tells the story of Perry Wallace, the first black basketball player in the Southeastern conference, and his life as a Vanderbilt student committed to academic growth. Reading this book can be painful-Perry was asked to leave a church on campus because of his color-but ultimately this is a book of survival and triumph.
September 16, 2015
Thank you Mr. Maraniss for a superbly written, enthralling narrative of a man we should all know and admire.
I would respectfully suggest that Vanderbilt scrap the idea of naming the new recreation center after Mr. Wallace. They should RENAME THE UNIVERSITY after Perry Wallace and name the recreation center:
"Maraniss Can Flat Out Write One Hell of a Book" Recreation Center. They can name the commodes after the Ole Miss students.
I would respectfully suggest that Vanderbilt scrap the idea of naming the new recreation center after Mr. Wallace. They should RENAME THE UNIVERSITY after Perry Wallace and name the recreation center:
"Maraniss Can Flat Out Write One Hell of a Book" Recreation Center. They can name the commodes after the Ole Miss students.
December 16, 2016
What a powerful book about an unexpected pioneer in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. What Perry Wallace endured as the first black basketball player not only at Vanderbilt but also in the entire SEC is unbelievable when we put it into the context of today. Unfortunately some of the vernacular used in the most recent political campaign could move us backward as it relates to race relations. If you want to know what that looks like, read this book.
May 10, 2020
Wonderful biography of an amazing man who endured so much with unbelievable grace and strength. If you enjoy history and sports, you’ll love this book!
July 26, 2016
I have pretty mixed feelings about this book. My confusion doesn't in any way result from the subject matter, as Perry Wallace is an incredibly important figure in the Civil Rights movement with an interesting story that needs to be told, but rather from the length of the book. This book is REALLY long and by no means for the faint of heart. I think that Maraniss could've made the book significantly stronger had he left out all of the continually added details about people and places that don't seem to play particularly large roles in Wallace's life. I am glad that I read this book because I feel like I should know the history of Perry Wallace and the integration of the SEC, but I wish the book had been shorter and more focused on Wallace himself. (That being said, it was well done for a biography. I didn't fall asleep reading it like I expected to.)
July 21, 2015
There are few things sadder in this life than to come to the end of a great and well-written book. Strong Inside is just such a book, and I am the better for having read it. Thank you, Mr. Maraniss, for delving into the life of an unsung hero and allowing him, through these page, to sing his "freedom song". And thank you, Mr. Wallace, for living a life worth aspiring to, for present and future generations to come. I could not recommend this book any more highly. A celebration of a chapter in black history that doesn't often get the spotlight, but given its critical importance, especially during the pivotal time it occurred, more than deserves to.
April 21, 2025
Maraniss has gathered a lot of great material, and makes excellent use of most of it. Having said that, the book could be improved by editing out the material that leads nowhere and really doesn't add anything to the story he wants to tell.
Wallace is the principle hero--and focus--of the book, but Maraniss does a good job of weaving in others who made contributions to progress.
Recommended, especially for those with Nashville, Vanderbilt, and SEC interests or ties.
Wallace is the principle hero--and focus--of the book, but Maraniss does a good job of weaving in others who made contributions to progress.
Recommended, especially for those with Nashville, Vanderbilt, and SEC interests or ties.
May 5, 2017
Excellent book! A captivating story of the struggles Perry Wallace endured as the first African-American to play basketball in the SEC. The author brings to life the every day challenges - where to sit in class, traveling with his teammates, attending church - that Perry had to confront as one of the first African American students both on and off the court at Vanderbilt. Perry's inner strength makes him a person to be honored for his courage facing such adversity.
May 9, 2017
Having grown up in Nashville about same time as Perry Wallace, I found this book fascinating. The detail about persons and place in Nashville and the South, especially Mississippi, is rich and informative. The indignities and cruelty of racism through large and petty acts, and the indifference of educational authorities and other students were awful and beyond comprehension. Helps to understand what happened, still much to be done.
July 21, 2017
Excellent addition to middle school nonfiction! This is a civil rights story in the 1960s in the South and the story of the integration of African Americans into college and college basketball. It is the story of Perry Wallace, and the painful and difficult four years he encountered as the first African American basketball player at Vanderbilt University.
September 1, 2018
Outstanding. This is my new favorite book and I read a lot of non-fiction. Maraniss manages to weld together a story of the 1960s civil rights battles with sports in the account of Nashville native Perry Wallace integrating the SEC's basketball teams at genteel Vanderbilt. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
May 30, 2017
Powerful book that documents some of America's ugly past. At times, it makes you feel helpless. At other times, it brings hope. Well done and thanks for almost bringing me to tears along the way.
January 3, 2024
Strong Inside by Andrew Maraniss. Is a nonfiction book about how the first African American male Perry Wallace played basketball in the SouthEastern Conference(sec). Where he faces so many challenges such as racism. When the coach at Vanderbilt showed up to Perry’s house they were surprised by this because there hasn't been an African Amerian there yet he was unsure to accept the offer because he knows African Americans arent liked in the south and that's where he would be playing. With Perry attending Vanderbilt he was also smart and after playing he got a good degree.
When on the road and even at home Perry would get harassed by his team's fans and opposing fans because he was black and didn't fit in to play with white people. However, Perry doesn't let that bother him and ignores rude and grateful things said to him. He starts out on Vanderbilt's JV team to get used to all the hateful comments. He finds his way to starting on the Varsity team as a freshman later on in the year helping his team win.
The reason I chose to read this book was because I love watching basketball especially Kentucky my dad told me about this book and I knew I had to read it because I found out how one man changed the game. If Perry Wallace never took on the challenge to play basketball at Vanderbilt basketball may not be as diverse as it is now. Thanks to Perry he encouraged so many African Americans to play college basketball in the 60s, and now so many African Americans fill up the college basketball world and the NBA.
This book took place in the 1960s one of the most racial times and he played in the southern part of the country. Where Perry would have to play in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and all other places that would treat him unfairly. Perry’s first game on the road he walked out on the floor to warm up and opposing fans would throw trash at him, call him names, and tell him he's not welcome to play here. However, Perry got frustrated with this in the beginning but learned to ignore it and just play. One time playing on the road Perry wasn't allowed in a hotel so the team had to sleep on the bus because he wasn't liked in the South.
I would recommend this book because of how Perry Wallace can overcome playing a sport that was only allowed for white people in college. He overall just changed basketball. By showing people anything you do there will always be haters and people who don't like you, but Perry showed them wrong and after he left lots of colleges started recruiting African Americans
When on the road and even at home Perry would get harassed by his team's fans and opposing fans because he was black and didn't fit in to play with white people. However, Perry doesn't let that bother him and ignores rude and grateful things said to him. He starts out on Vanderbilt's JV team to get used to all the hateful comments. He finds his way to starting on the Varsity team as a freshman later on in the year helping his team win.
The reason I chose to read this book was because I love watching basketball especially Kentucky my dad told me about this book and I knew I had to read it because I found out how one man changed the game. If Perry Wallace never took on the challenge to play basketball at Vanderbilt basketball may not be as diverse as it is now. Thanks to Perry he encouraged so many African Americans to play college basketball in the 60s, and now so many African Americans fill up the college basketball world and the NBA.
This book took place in the 1960s one of the most racial times and he played in the southern part of the country. Where Perry would have to play in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and all other places that would treat him unfairly. Perry’s first game on the road he walked out on the floor to warm up and opposing fans would throw trash at him, call him names, and tell him he's not welcome to play here. However, Perry got frustrated with this in the beginning but learned to ignore it and just play. One time playing on the road Perry wasn't allowed in a hotel so the team had to sleep on the bus because he wasn't liked in the South.
I would recommend this book because of how Perry Wallace can overcome playing a sport that was only allowed for white people in college. He overall just changed basketball. By showing people anything you do there will always be haters and people who don't like you, but Perry showed them wrong and after he left lots of colleges started recruiting African Americans
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2019
Really more like 4.25 stars.
Wallace was the first African American basketball player (and, for the most part, the first AA athlete) in the SEC. He happened along at the right time, he was from Nashville, and was book-smart enough to get into Vanderbilt on merits.
This is a thoroughly researched biography. And yet… the author kept going in directions that I was less interested in. There was a whole lot of brushes with history. (Maybe the Vanderbilt president met Barack Obama’s father. All of MLK, RFK, Otis Redding were at Vanderbilt during Wallace’s time there, and just before each of them died. After college, he tutored Kobe Bryant’s father in math.) And surprisingly little basketball details. Maybe such details are hard to reconstruct 50 years later?
There was more saying he was discriminated against rather than showing it.
Fortunately, Wallace is a genuinely interesting guy. Majored in Engineering, then became a successful lawyer and law professor. (BTW, why? Was engineering too hard to hang onto through attempts to make it as a pro? Or was it just that he was really taken by the idea of working for racial justice?)
Wallace was the first African American basketball player (and, for the most part, the first AA athlete) in the SEC. He happened along at the right time, he was from Nashville, and was book-smart enough to get into Vanderbilt on merits.
This is a thoroughly researched biography. And yet… the author kept going in directions that I was less interested in. There was a whole lot of brushes with history. (Maybe the Vanderbilt president met Barack Obama’s father. All of MLK, RFK, Otis Redding were at Vanderbilt during Wallace’s time there, and just before each of them died. After college, he tutored Kobe Bryant’s father in math.) And surprisingly little basketball details. Maybe such details are hard to reconstruct 50 years later?
There was more saying he was discriminated against rather than showing it.
Fortunately, Wallace is a genuinely interesting guy. Majored in Engineering, then became a successful lawyer and law professor. (BTW, why? Was engineering too hard to hang onto through attempts to make it as a pro? Or was it just that he was really taken by the idea of working for racial justice?)
April 25, 2023
Andrew Maraniss books may often sports as a central element of the story, but they are much more than sports stories. Strong Inside is in line with this. In telling the story of Wallace, Maraniss is not only looking at the career of a basketball player with a retired jersey at Vanderbilt - it also is an opportunity to learn more about Nashville's history, the challenges of integrating Vanderbilt's student body, the challenges of navigating the 1960s and broader issues of race and entitlement. As someone who is now a Nashville resident, I appreciated the insights this book gave into Nashville's history and culture through the lens of Wallace's story.
November 6, 2019
I really liked this book. Andrew Maraniss really does a phenomenal job explaining racial diversity through sports. He really put us into Perry's place throughout Perry's life. If Perry Wallace were alive today he would be so honored that an author decided to deeply go into details about his Journey. I also like how for certain paragraphs Andrew Maraniss told about the perspective of other Vanderbilt students so that we were to know that more people than Perry were going through this conflict. Especially Dillard. I thank Andrew Maraniss for writing this fabulous book
December 30, 2019
I heard this book recommended on a basketball podcast I listen to, and I'm so glad I picked it up. It's geared for young (teen) readers, but I thought it was such an interesting and well-done story that explained in a clear and personal way what it was like to be the first black basketball player in the SEC, yet set it in the larger historical context of what was going on in the United States at the time. I'm so glad to know Perry Wallace's story and am appreciative of how much he shared of his story.
May 5, 2018
This is book is successful on multiple levels. An amazing personal story, an important history of the civil rights movement in the US, and a wake up call to everyone to remember how recently change began and how the need for more change continues. I highly recommend.
May 5, 2022
Excellent, detailed, researched, good pace woven with interviews on Based on more than eighty interviews. Enjoyed learning about Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC.
October 27, 2017
This is an outstanding book. - it is a part of our history we all need to know.
April 21, 2018
Excellent!!
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September 30, 2019A great biography showing the life of being an athlete in the Sec during the civil rights movement.
April 23, 2020
A great book, even for people like me who know nothing about basketball.
August 13, 2020
One of my favorite books I've read recently. Follows the story of Perry Wallace, the first black man to integrate basketball in the Southeastern Conference while at Vanderbilt.
September 26, 2020
An awesome and inspiring book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews