Page 16 - Florida Sentinel 3-4-22

Black History: The History Behind The Names
Theresa Manuel Relays
A Moment In Black History
Ms. Theresa A. Manuel is a Tampa na- tive who became an Olympian. She was a member of the American Olympic Team at the 1948 games in London.
Ms. Theresa A. Manuel was born in Tampa on January 7, 1926, and attended the schools of Hillsborough County, graduating from Middleton High school in 1944. She later attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, ma- joring in Physical Education, and received her B. S. degree in 1949.
Ms. Manuel not only participated in the sport of basketball, where her team held con- ference champions status for four consecutive years, but also in track and field events, com- piling records and victories that thrust her team to four championships.
In 1947, Ms. Manuel participated in a track meet at the University of Chicago. Dur- ing the event, she set the record time for the 50-yard indoor dirt track hurdles that she still holds until this day.
Ms. Manuel was later honored by being chosen as a member of the 1948 U. S. Olympic Track team, making her the first African American Floridian to compete in the Olympic Games.
She competed in the 80-meter hurdles and was third leg in the 440-yard team relay, and javelin throw. She and her team members were invited to the White House by Presi- dent Harry Truman when they returned to the states.
Ms. Manuel was a physical education in- structor at Middleton High School, and coached the girls’ basketball team that won three state championships.
Leaving Middleton after 21 years, Ms. Manuel coached basketball at Hillsborough High School for 17 years, where her teams won
MS. THERESA MANUEL
conference, district, and regional titles.
Ms. Manuel received many honors through the years. Among them was her being named “Coach of the Year” for Hillsborough County in 1975, and 1976, and “Coach of the
Year” for the State of Florida in 1976.
On November 2, 1979, Ms. Manuel was inducted into the Tuskegee Institute Hall of Fame. In March 1994, she became the first African American woman inducted into the
Tampa Sports Hall of Fame.
Ms. Manuel was honored, along with
other Olympians, by the 2012 Olympic Com- mittee of the State of Florida, during their re- ception in March 2000.
Since March 1973, track and field events held at Hillsborough High School have been named the “Theresa Manuel Relays.”
When I was a youth, I did not know the importance of voting in local, state and national elections. But once I grew up as an adult, I educated myself in order to have a better understanding about “The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is a landmark piece of federal legis- lation in the United States that prohibits racial dis- crimination in voting.”
Currently, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is vital to ensuring that all Americans are able to enjoy the freedom of democracy and equally, exercise their right to vote.
In 2021, 52 restrictive voter laws were passed in various states across the country, limiting options to vote and undermining local elections officials’ ability to manage elections. Georgia’s law, Senate Bill (SB202), criminalized handing out water to voters standing in long lines. The Texas Senate Bill (SB1), would have election officials face prosecution for reg- ulating poll watchers’ inappropriate behavior in the polling place.
As a nation, our democracy is taking steps back- wards. While many will say it has nothing to do with racial injustice, I completely disagree. The Jim Crow Laws 2.0 is looming in the state of Florida and addi- tional states, if we don’t come together as a nation and protect our democracy that is now in peril.
We all must come together, work together, and strategize together to protect the moral fiber of this na- tion democracy, and allow all Americans to live out the Preamble of the Constitution, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Wel- fare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Consti- tution for the United States of America.”
[Dr. Shandale Terrell is an Educator for Polk County Public Schools, a Civic Leader in Lakeland, Polk County and the State of Florida]
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