I do think there are more classes on the way and I think there will be a loss of identity for a lot of small schools.

In 2002, I was in a diner in southern Illinois that didn't allow black people to eat in the restaurant. I was there while a black customer came in, ordered from the counter and left with the food. I checked it out and it is known that the diner is segregated.

When the change was made in 1972, we were all very skeptical.

When it was finally over - all of the traveling, the 350 interviews, countless phone calls - and I received the book in the mail, I realized I had never done anything like it. I look at this book and I looking at three years of my life.

I did not set out to write a controversial book, ... But no matter where I went in the state, I ran into the question of race. The 1940s and most of the 1950s were a time of accepted segregation.

Finally, in 1953, Al Willis, the executive director of the IHSA said enough is enough, ... In 1954 the state tournament was fully integrated.