Perry Wallace feared he would be shot when he stepped onto a basketball court in a Vanderbilt uniform. Georgia's Ronnie Hogue jumped atop a press table, swinging a chair in self-defense, as a menacing crowd approached following a road game. Craig Noble joined other threatened black students in a rare, en masse flight from the Clemson campus. Maryland's Pete Johnson seethed when a teammate used a racial epithet in a supervised workout and his coaches let it pass. C. B. Claiborne could not attend the Duke team banquet his freshman year because it was held at a white country club.Collis Temple, whose father carried a pistol for protection against marauding whites in rural Louisiana, scuffled with an opposing player each season he played at LSU. Wendell Hudson's mother cried when the Birmingham native, whose family routinely hit the deck each time racists' bombs exploded in their neighborhood, decided to become the first black athlete at the University of Alabama. Al Heartley and other black students locked themselves in a campus dorm at North Carolina State, fearing the actions of an unruly white crowd the night Martin Luther King was assassinated."Across the Line" recounts the experiences of the pioneering African-American basketball players at eighteen schools in the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences, the South's most prominent, historically white intercollegiate leagues. Set within the context of the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s, grounded in the civil rights struggles on campus and within the larger community, and enriched by the viewpoint of players, relatives, coaches, teammates, opponents, and other observers, this book tells an important and long-neglected storycombining race, sports, and social history.

In the 1960s, college sports required more than athletic prowess from its African American players. For many pioneering basketball players on 18 teams in the Atlantic and Southeastern conference, playing ball meant braving sometimes menacing crowds during the tumultuous era of civil rights. Perry Wallace feared he would be shot when he first stepped onto a court in his Vanderbilt uniform. During one road game, Georgia's Ronnie Hogue fended off a hostile crowd with a chair. Craig Mobley had to flee the Clemson campus, along with other black students. C.B. Claiborne couldn't attend the Duke team banquet when it was held at an all-white country club. Wendell Hudson's mother cried with heartache when her son decided to play at the University of Alabama, and Al Heartley locked himself in a campus dorm at North Carolina State for safety the night Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Grounded in the civil rights struggles on campuses throughout the south, the voices of players, coaches, opponents and fans reveal the long-neglected story of race, sports and social history.
Barry Jacobs has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, People and other publications. He is the author of several sports books, including "Coach K's Little Blue Book," He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.