Since Tom Payne did sign with Kentucky, I assumed that meant he did not think coach Adolph Rupp was a racist. What I didn’t realize is that Payne had only been playing basketball for three years then and he also admits he had been “shielded” from racism his whole life before becoming the first African-American player at Kentucky about 50 years ago.
“I just didn’t really know him. When I signed was not thinking this guy was racist or not racist. Never entered my mind,” Payne said. “I was so shielded from so much being an Army brat and the school at Shawnee was integrated and there were no problems with students.
“I never had to deal with race until I started traveling in the SEC. That’s why maybe the impact on me was so different than that of the average African-American that was used to racism. I had never been exposed. Maybe that’s why it caused some issues for me that it did.”
Payne is now working to help with racial injustice and racial conciliation.
“I am trying to deal with larger issues. I am trying to help people, especially young men understand race and racism,” Payne said. “There are a lot of people talking now — and I am not talking about any specific person or group — that have not really had to face racism the way some people of my generation have. I lived through it and some issues of life caused me to go off kilter due to some experiences of racism.
“Fortunately my life did a 360-degree turn and I have grown in a lot of ways. I work with men in this area to teach young men the principles about life. Why not seek that out and help them help society move forward? Let’s work together. Let’s go forward, get some passionate solutions that we can all embrace.”
To see more of Payne’s story and work he’s involved in now, go to http://www.transformationalvictories.org/.
