Moving the Chains

The Tulane Center for Sport is proud to host Pro Football Hall of Famers Bobby Bell and Ron Mix, who will join author Erin Grayson Sapp to share the powerful story of how the city of New Orleans was reshaped for the better, and forever, by the launch of an NFL franchise. With the football-crazed city hoping to land a coveted NFL team in the mid-1960s, the city’s racial segregation laws and unjust social temperature stood as serious obstacles. When Tulane Stadium hosted a pro football All-Star game in 1965, all the players—including Bell and Mix— walked off the field in protest of segregation. This courageous action, along with the NFL’s influence, expedited a sea change in the city.

This watershed moment is explored in Sapp’s incisive book, Moving the Chains, which digs into the backstory of how the city landed its beloved New Orleans Saints franchise and with the Civil Rights movement taking center stage. This remarkable moment in local and national history is an indelible example of the key role that sport can take in matters of social justice and social change.

The Tulane Center for Sport is proud to host Bell, Mix, and Sapp to share an in-depth and first-hand account of how a group of courageous players, football, and the NFL helped tear down walls of injustice and remake the social fabric of the city of New Orleans.