Sublime

At the close of Russell’s 1938 speech against lynching legislation, Borah of Idaho walked over to him and congratulated him—and then took the floor himself to echo Russell’s argument that the bill was a violation of states’ rights. (Whereupon Russell rose in his turn to say, “The people of the South will ever revere the name of William E. Borah.”)

David Falkner is the author of several highly acclaimed books on sports including Sadaharu Oh: A Zen Way of Baseball, The Last Yankee, and Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham.