Perry Wallace

Perry Wallace is a professor of law at Washington College of Law. He was the first African American varsity athlete to play under an athletic scholarship in the Southeastern Conference, playing basketball for Vanderbilt University. His experiences at Vanderbilt are the subject of the book Strong Inside, by Andrew Maraniss, published in 2014.

Education

Wallace attended Pearl High School in the then segregated Nashville public schools. He was a straight-A student, valedictorian of his class and was named a high school All-American athlete.

Wallace was recruited by many colleges, and enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1966. In 1967, he became the first black scholarship athlete to play in the Southeastern Conference. However, contrary to widely stated belief, he was not the first black athlete to play in the SEC—in spring 1966, Stephen Martin, who was on an academic scholarship at Tulane, played baseball during that school's final season in the conference. Wallace was welcomed by his teammates, but traveling with the team was difficult, and Wallace was often threatened from opposing teams with verbal taunts and roughness on the court. He graduated with a degree in engineering in 1970, and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. In the following season, basketball teams from Alabama, Kentucky, Florida and Georgia contained black athletes.

He earned his law degree from Columbia University in 1975.

Perry Wallace
Perry Wallace
1967-1970
Jersey Retired

Career

Wallace was a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice, where he dealt with natural resources and environmental law. In 1992 he was appointed to the Environmental Policy advisory council of the EPA. He became a professor of law at The American University Washington College of Law in 1993, where he specializes in environmental law, corporate law and finance.

Honors

• 2003 - Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame
• 2004 - Retirement of his Vanderbilt jersey, number 25

External links

• Perry Wallace's entry in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture