I’ve just been reading the largely forgotten story of a black athlete named Devon Sherwood. He was also a student at Duke University — that mostly white, prestigious place where “well-heeled, well-connected, well-publicized young men” always get off the hook.
His crime was simply being black, being on the same Lacrosse team as the accused athletes, and believing his teammates (whom he knew) didn’t do it.
For that, he had to put up with the following:
You OWE all the hundreds of thousands of our forbearer whose backs YOU stand on, who suffered, worked, protested,marched, sat-in, bled, and died so that you could go to an institution who historically did not always admit African-Americans to be educated or play organized sports. YOU OWE THEM DEVON. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? HOW LONG WILL YOU SIT AND LET THESE SISTERS SUFFER?
All because he was a member of the Duke Lacrosse team and his skin was the wrong color.
The latter was only a minor inconvenience for prosecutor Nifong, who quipped that he didn’t know black people played Lacrosse:
Originally, prosecutors had sought the arrests of all 47 members of the Duke team. However, it was revealed that one of the team’s members, Devon Sherwood, was actually black.
“We apologize to Mr. Sherwood and his family for any inconvenience,” said Nifong. “We didn’t know black people played Lacrosse.”
Well I guess that served Devon Sherwood right, didn’t it?
Apparently Nifong didn’t know that people are innocent until proven guilty, either.
Devon Sherwood is obviously a good and decent man, who turned out have to be right about his teammates. I admire his bravery in not caving to the mob and making up the stories the mob so badly wanted him to make up.
I guess that’s why he never got more attention.
MORE: Commenter XWL points out that the greatest Lacrosse player of all time was Jim Brown. (I guess Nifong knows about as much about Lacrosse as he does about legal ethics.)
Comments
3 responses to “A forgotten story of a good man”
Didn’t Nifong know that the greatest Lacrosse player of all time was Jim Brown?
I have read this story on EbonyFriends.com and i think this story is very wonderful.
Devon Sherwood,a black althlete,and also was obviously a good and decent man. I met a black person on EbonyFriends.com and he said the black people would memory him forever.