On Monday, University of Mississippi Chair of African American Studies Charles Ross was a guest speaker at the Natchez Historic Foundation’s Hometown Teams exhibit and delivered a strong testiment to the history of African-American athletes from the Magnolia State.

Ross, who received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University, began by highlighting organized athletics from the early to mid 1900s. Luke Easter of Jonestown was one of the early integrators of MLB. Easter played for Cleveland from 1949 to 1954.

Ross said, since integration, there are fewer “what ifs” in sports regarding how black athletes would have affected the course of championship history.

“We have, in many ways, a better brand of professional sports,“ Ross said. “When I first moved to Mississippi a guy told me … ‘If there were no negro leagues and there was an opportunity for integration, maybe the Yankees wouldn’t have won all those World Series in the 1920s.’”

Ross highlighted the collegiate career of Alcorn State University football player Jack Spinks, for whom Alcorn’s football stadium is partially named after. Spinks led Alcorn to conference championships in 1950 to 1951.

Ross touched on figures who had far-reaching impacts on integration and civil rights, such as James Meredith, who was Ole Miss’ first African American enrollee in 1962, and the 1963 Mississippi State basketball team that defied the “Unwritten Rule” to sneak out of the state to the NCAA Tournament to play integrated Loyola,

But, Ross also touched on athletes with slightly more local ties. Pete Brown of Port Gibson was the first African American to win a PGA tour event at the 1964 Waco Open.

“In his best year, 1970, he finished 35th on the money list and had a nice career on the Senior Tour,“ Ross said.

The timeliness of the presentation allowed Ross to remark on a memory he had of Muhammad Ali’s “Fight of the Century” with Joe Frazier in 1971.

Ross said he saw the fight at a theater in Dayton, Ohio, and Ali had been built up in his mind to be an unstoppable force. Ross said that made the result of the fight all the more shocking when Frazier knocked him down and eventually went on to win the fight.

Ross said Ali, a controversial figure with regards to his iconic role in society, and iconic status impacted civil rights more than the world of sports.

“(Ali) was greatly impacted by the welcome he received when he went to Zaire … All of these people saying ‘Ali bomaye’ really gave him the confidence to believe he could really beat George Forman,” Ross said. “When you think of his principles, not many athletes would give up the kind of money he gave up to stop fighting because he was devoted to his religion.”

Ross is the author of the book “Mavericks, Money, and Men: The AFL, Black Players, and the Evolution of Modern Football.” The book is an in-depth look at black athletes in the “less-selective” AFL and how it accelerated the racial integration of football in America.

As the Natchez Historic Foundation’s Hometown Teams exhibit continues to grow, foundation officials say locals are still bringing in Natchez sports memorabilia daily.