By Jesten Richardson, The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A former Marshall University football player recalled the impact the 1970 plane crash had on racial tensions at the university during the 53rd annual Memorial Fountain Ceremony on Tuesday.
Craig Greenlee, journalist, Marshall alumnus and author of “November Ever After: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph in the Wake of the 1970 Marshall Football Plane Crash” and of the upcoming book “Marshall Ever After,” was the keynote speaker for the ceremony at the Memorial Student Center Plaza.
Greenlee, who was a member of the 1969 football team at Marshall and returned for part of the 1971 season, described the tense racial situation that emerged on Friday, Nov. 13, 1970, including fights breaking out.
According to Greenlee, though Larry “The Governor” Brown, one of the 75 people who perished in the 1970 Marshall plane crash, played a role in diffusing the situation that day, there was still uneasiness, anger, apprehension and fear among Black students.
“A lot of us were on edge, and even now, to this very day, I remain fully convinced that we were on the verge of a full-scale race riot on Marshall’s campus,” Greenlee said.
However, the next day, on Saturday, Nov. 14, 1970, the plane crash occurred.
