Mr. CFB: Lessons I Learned From Charles Turner

Fifty years ago—that’s right 50 years ago—I met Charles Turner.

Then, as is the case now, it was a most uncertain time.

It was the Spring of 1970 and my high school—predominantly-white Greene County High—and his school, the predominantly-black Floyd T. Corry High—were about to merge as part of a desegregation order by the United States Supreme Court.

It had been 16 years since the original ruling to end the segregation of schools—Brown vs. Board of Education—had been handed down. Change on this issue came slowly.

The merging of the schools also meant that in the Fall of 1970, Greene County High School (about 75 miles east of Atlanta) would field its first integrated football team. And at the very first practice that spring it was clear to everyone on the field—because of his talent and his presence--that he would be our starting quarterback.

The team had only 19 players—12 white, seven black. But what that team lacked in numbers it made up for with heart. After an 0-2 start we won our division and then lost 13-0 in the region champion game against a Gainesville team that dressed at least 80 players. On paper, we had no business being on the same field with Gainesville, but nobody told us that. We gave them a helluva game.

The men who played and coached on the 1970 Greene County football bonded and made what many in the community thought would be a difficult transition a little easier. Most of us made our first true friendships with someone from another race. That was certainly the case in what has become my 50-year friendship with Charles Turner.

Charles went on to have a very successful career after high school. He played college football at Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University). He had a free-agent tryout with the Dallas Cowboys. He became a very successful women’s high school basketball coach with almost 500 wins and a state championship. He later became the director of athletics at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, Ga. He is in four different Halls of Fame as a player, coach, and administrator.

We have stayed in touch over the decades. In fact, I worked with his son, Curtis, when I did a television show called “Talkin’ Football” for CSS.

After the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis , protests exploded world-wide over the injustices and unequal treatment of African-Americans.

I decided to call Charles and do some listening.

In our lifetimes we both have seen “colored only” entrances to theaters and access to restrooms and water fountains.

He told me the story of being pulled over by the police in the backwoods of Comer, Ga. They screamed at him because he HAD NOT been drinking. He was scared. But they let him go.

He’s raised two sons and a daughter and educated them on the realities—and the opportunities-- of being a young, black person in America.

“There is still a lot of injustice in the world,” he said.

There are changes—lots of changes—that we must make as a society. Those of us who grew up without the burden of dealing with race on a daily basis have to do the heavy lifting here. People like Charles have had to handle the burden for too long.

And the hope is that the process of change is now beginning, that this is the tipping point.

But when Charles and I talked on Monday, I was impressed with the fact that despite our problems, despite our failure to live up to the promise of equal protection under the law, he still believes in the fundamental goodness of America.

“We are all human beings. Right is right and wrong is wrong. We all know that. It’s not complicated,” he said. “But the fact is that this is still America and I’d rather be in America than anywhere else. I am blessed in a lot of ways.”

Tuesday night a number of the players and coaches from the 1970 Greene County Tigers were scheduled to meet via Zoom.

Who set up the call? That would be Charles Turner.

He is still our quarterback.