When NBA star LeBron James criticized President Trump on ESPN, Fox News host Laura Ingraham told James to “shut up and dribble.” Her comment triggered outrage and accusations of racism. Historian Amy Bass will discuss what happens when professional athletes speak publicly about political issues in this year’s Harold Seymour Lecture in Sports History, “Listen to Athletes for a Change: Race, Politics and Sports,” March 8 at 4:30 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

“Amy Bass is a leader of a new generation of public intellectuals, who engage audiences inside and outside of academia,” said Lawrence Glickman, the Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor in American Studies. “She writes in an accessible way and has written popular trade books in addition to her academic monographs.”

Bass is a professor of history at the College of New Rochelle, New York. Her books include “Not the Triumph, but the Struggle,” the story of the 1968 Olympic protests; and “One Goal: A Coach, a Team and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together,” her most recent work, about Somali immigrants, soccer and a Maine community.

Her writing has also appeared in Slate, Salon and CNN Opinion. She received an Emmy in 2012 for her work on NBC’s London Olympics coverage.

The Harold Seymour Lecture in Sports History is presented annually by the Department of History with the support of George Kirsch ’67 and brings distinguished sport historians to Cornell. Seymour was one of the first baseball historians, known for his three-volume book detailing the development of the sport from an amateur pastime into a professional sport.

Bass will also appear at Buffalo Street Books March 7 at 4:30 p.m. for a book signing.

This article is written by Spencer DeRoos, a communications assistant for the College of Arts and Sciences. It was originally published in the Cornell Chronicle on February 27, 2018.