(L-R): Ibtihaj Muhammad, Lonnae O’Neal, Kara Lawson appear on the panel with moderator Jemele Hill. BALTIMORE - Tuesday, Oct. 18, on the campus of Morgan State University (MSU), ESPN’s The Undefeated teamed with the University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication to sponsor a symposium on The Impact of Negative Images on Black Women Athletes. Moderated by Jemele Hill, co-host of ESPN2‘s popular weekday sports discussion program “His & Hers†and co-anchor of 6 p.m. ET SportsCenter (starting February 2017), the symposium unpeeled layers of overt and hidden messages of race, gender and at times, religion, that confront African-American women athletes. The panelists were Ibtihaj Muhammad, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in fencing and the first American to compete in a hijab at the Olympics; 2008 Olympics gold medalist in women’s basketball and ESPN basketball analyst Kara Lawson; and award-winning journalist Lonnae O’Neal, senior writer with The Undefeated. The symposium marked the launch of the School of Global Journalism and Communication's new Center for the Study of Race in Sports and Culture (CSRSC). The Undefeated is funding the first two studies by the Center on the images of black women athletes, and an exploration of the pipeline for head coaching jobs for African Americans in the NFL and NCAA Division 1 football. Results from the CSRSC study will form the basis of an expository journalism series that will be published by The Undefeated. Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad: “I became the first Muslim woman in a hijab to qualify for the Olympic team, and my life and my experiences in sport became bigger than me. I feel like those moments in our history are so much bigger than us.†ESPN's Kara Lawson (center) stressed that the issues affecting the image of African-American women athletes go beyond the playing field. (L-R) Senior VP, Editor-in-Chief, The Undefeated, Kevin Merida; Muhammad; O’Neal; Lawson; DeWayne Wickham, Dean, MSU School of Global Journalism and Communication; Hill; and Don-Terry Veal, Chief of Staff, Office of the President, MSU.
