Charles Alexander

Well, it was always a disconnect with race relations, and I remember the athletic director, Willie Barnett, at that time constantly reminded me that if I didn’t follow the rules of the Virginia High School League, that I wouldn’t be able to participate in sports, and it wasn’t even an issue.  I sort of blew him off, that you do what you have to do and we’ll do what we have to do.  And so it wasn’t a thing that I was concerned about, whether I played ball or I had to change who I was to fit in to play ball.  Although I was a good ball player, it just wasn’t a central issue for me to do a transformation and to be the goody-goody boy there just to go along and get along.