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An Author Talk at the MLK library featuring John Thompson's Autobiography by Jesse Washington
As the MLK Library celebrates the 50th anniversary of the central library in downtown Washington D.C., we recognize a significant fixture in Washington D.C. history in John Thompson’s role as a local high school coach turned legendary coach of the Georgetown Hoya college basketball team. Thanks to the DC Public Library Foundation and the Washington Association for Black Journalist for making this event possible.
About the Book
John Thompson was never just a basketball coach and I Came As A Shadow is categorically not just a basketball autobiography.
After five decades at the center of race and sports in America, Thompson―the iconic NCAA champion, Black activist, and educator―was ready to make the private public at last, and he completed this autobiography shortly before his death in the historically tumultuous summer of 2020. Chock Full of stories and moving beyond mere stats (three Final Fours, four-time national coach of the year, seven Big East championships, 97 percent graduation rate), Thompson’s book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. We experience riding shotgun with Celtics icon Red Auerbach and coaching NBA Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. What were the origins of the phrase “Hoya Paranoia”? You’ll see. And parting his veil of secrecy, Thompson brings us into his negotiation with a D.C. drug kingpin in his players’ orbit in the 1980s, as well as behind the scenes of his years on the Nike board.
Thompson’s mother was a teacher who had to clean houses because of racism in the nation's capital. His father could not read or write. Their son grew up to be a man with his own larger-than-life statue in a building that bears his family’s name on a campus once kept afloat by the selling of 272 enslaved Black people. This is a great American story, and John Thompson’s experience sheds light on many of the issues roiling our nation. In these pages, he proves himself to be the elder statesman whose final words college basketball and the country need to hear.
I Came As A Shadow is not a swan song, but a bullhorn blast from one of America’s most prominent sons.
About the Author
Jesse Washington was born in Brooklyn to an artist father and social worker mother. His family moved to Poughkeepsie, NY, when he was in grade school, and he began his career covering sports for The Poughkeepsie Journal the summer after his freshman year at Yale University. The next summer he returned to the Journal and switched to local news. He got his first front-page byline on his 19th birthday, on a story about Louis Farrakhan’s visit to the home of Tawana Brawley.
Jesse's novel, Black Will Shoot, was published in 2008. Later that year — three months before the election of the first black president — he began covering race for AP. Since 2015, Jesse has been a senior writer for ESPN's The Undefeated, a platform for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture. He is co-author of the autobiography of former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, I Came As A Shadow, published in 2020 by Henry Holt. Jesse has won a National Journalism Award from the Asian-American Journalists Association, Journalist of the Year award from the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, two feature awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, and a 2019 Associated Press Sports Editors Top 10 award for column writing.
Jesse is married with four children and a member of the Baha'i Faith. You can find him giving folks the business on a basketball court near you.
About the Moderator
Jerry started his career in 1985 as a Reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Later, he also held positions of Sports reporter and Host of The Baltimore Sun High School Sports Show there. From 1999 to 2009, he worked at ESPN, firstly as a NBA Editor of ESPN Magazine, and later as a Color analyst and Senior Writer. From 2009 to 2012, Jerry was a Senior Video Producer at WYPR. In 2011-2013, he served as an Adjunct professor at Towson University, teaching a new media course. From 2012 to 2014, he was also an Adjunct professor at Morgan State University.
In 2013-2014, Jerry was a Founder and Executive Editor of Blacktopxchange.com, a website established to offer diverse views on sports and culture. In 2014, he also worked as a Host of The Blacktopxchange Sports Report at WEAA FM and Host of High School Sports Scene at Baltimore County Public Schools. From 2014 and until now, Jerry has been a Senior Writer at ESPN. He currently serves as the Senior writer at ESPN and Disney's Andscape and Director of ESPN's + On & Coppin.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Author Talk |
