Willie Cooper paid a heavy price for breaking a color barrier at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1964.

The first African American basketball player for legendary coach Dean Smith, Cooper, then 18, played on the freshman team for a year before leaving the squad with memories which remain painful decades later.

Cooper came to Chapel Hill from Elm City, NC, where he had been raised by a foster family. He had a love of learning and a competitive drive that drove high test scores in the classroom and success on the basketball court.

One of just 18 black students in his UNC-Chapel Hill class, Cooper was pushed around by teammates, insulted by audiences, and not served in certain restaurants during team road trips. Once, to avoid conflict, he was left behind on a trip to South Carolina.

After being asked to leave the athletic dormitory because his white roommates did not want to live with him, Cooper made the difficult decision to give up basketball. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1968 and, after military service that included a deployment in Vietnam, accepted a job at IBM as an operations manager in Mobile, AL. He later became an Equal Opportunity Manager, helping ensure IBM gave other African Americans the same chances he had been given. He retired, with 20 years of service, in 1993. Cooper paved the way at UNC-Chapel Hill for many student athletes, including his son, Brent, and daughter, Tonya.

Cooper feels that keeping his cool and not reacting negatively to racism were keys to leaving a positive legacy for history. “While not all events were pleasurable, the pleasure was that I was able to overcome and be successful,” Cooper said. “My story represents many people struggling and overcoming.”

Photo courtesy of Mr. Willie Cooper

Willie Cooper

May The Heritage CalendarCelebrating the North Carolina African American Experience

Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.

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Civil Rights Act signed by President Eisenhower in 1960

J.R. Winters patented the fire escape in 1878

Henry McNeal Turner, a minister, politician and the first southern bishop of the A.M.E. Church, died in 1915

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated south; the first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., in 1961

Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist, was born in 1925

In 1804, a slave known only as “York” accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, founded at Indiana University, was incorporated in 1911

North Carolina Mutual Building named a National Historic Landmark in 1975

Sammy Davis Jr. an American entertainer, died in 1990

Martha Graham, dancer, was born in 1894

Lowell W. Perry was confirmed as chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1975

Louis Gossett Jr., actor, was born in 1936

Eliza Ann Gardner, Underground Railroad conductor, was born in 1831

James Brown, Godfather of Soul, was born in 1933

Sugar Ray Robinson, boxing champion, was born in 1920

Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American Pulitzer Prize winner for Annie Allen in 1950

Slave emancipation declaration for Georgia, Florida and South Carolina in 1862

P.B.S. Pinchback, first African American state governor, was born in 1837

Robert Smalls seized Confederate warship in 1862

U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954

Reggie Jackson, baseball player, was born in 1946

Robert N.C. Nix was elected to U.S. Congress in 1958 Claude McKay, poet, died in 1948

Bob Marley, reggae legend, died in 1981

Hal McRae was named manager of the Kansas City Royals in 1991

Madame. C.J. Walker, entrepreneur, died in 1919

Althea Gibson won the French Open, becoming the first African American tennis player to win a major tennis title in 1956

Howard University in Washington, D.C. opened in 1867

Elijah McCoy, inventor and holder of more than fifty patents, was born in 1844

Joe Louis, boxer, was born in 1914

Thomas Bradley was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1973

Countee Cullen, poet, was born in 1903

CiNCO De MayO

MOTher’S Day arMeD FOrCeS Day

MeMOrial Day

NAACP held first conference (as the National Negro Committee) in 1909

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