February 26, 2015
BY ALLEN BUCHANAN, Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG — The MYcroSchool of Pinellas punctuated its recognition of Black History Month by hosting the viewing of the award-winning documentary “Through The Tunnel” Wed., Feb 18.
The video highlights the legendary leadership of Coach Eddie Shannon and two-time Pro-Bowler Henry Lawrence of the Lincoln Memorial High Trojans, an all-black high school football team at the dawn of desegregation in Manatee County.
In order for the young men to get from their high school to the football field, they literally walked through a concrete tunnel underneath a Manatee Highway. The visual of the tunnel in the documentary explodes with the symbolic significance of the Underground Railroad that represented the path to the light of freedom.
For the Trojans, what awaited them on the other side of the tunnel and desegregation was a world of unimaginable ugliness, valor and victory on the gridiron of southern integration. Anything worth doing comes with a price tag.
