Stronger Than Hate

By USC Athletics Black History Month

February 7^th, 2024

On Jan. 29, 2024, USC Athletics hosted the “Stronger Than Hate” Student-Athlete panel. During the panel, student-athletes described their trips to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, and to Krakow, Poland. They shared the impact of these trips, their understanding of their own humanity and their roles as agents of change working to eliminate the various manifestations of hate in the world.

In 2023, the Big Ten Conference sponsored journeys to Selma and Montgomery as part of its “Big Life Series.” The men’s basketball team visited Montgomery as part of the Pac-12/Southwestern Athletic Conference Legacy Series. USC’s Shoah Foundation sponsored the trip to Poland as part of its Leadership Summit, sending Trojan student-athletes to not only bear witness to these infamous sites, but also to connect with academics who specialize in Holocaust studies.

Jalaysi’ya Smith, a junior on the USC track & field team, recalled visiting The Legacy Museum in Montgomery and seeing a wall of victims of racial injustice — a moment that put her own experiences into perspective.

“We think there are problems today, and there still are so many, but they’re so minute compared to the things those people experienced,” Smith said. “Once you look at those faces and see just a sea of eyes, you realize that you’ll never be able to understand.”

For all students, the visit to Selma and Montgomery was an eye-opening experience, but for some — specifically those from the South — it was a sobering homecoming.

“It was an honor to be recommended to be a part of this program,” said Garrison Madden, a redshirt freshman on the USC football team and native of Hampton, Ga. “Being from the South, I’ve learned about the Civil Rights Movement and the people that have been a part of it, so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to learn more about not only African American history, but our world’s history.”