SDPB Prairie Doc highlights Cleveland Abbott
This Thursday, May 2, 2019, 7:00pm South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s On Call with the Prairie Doc® “A Different Approach to Pain Than Surgery or Medication” will also feature a segment on 2018 South Dakota Hall of Fame inductee, Cleveland Abbott.
Bruce Danielson of Sioux Falls will highlight how Cleveland Abbott’s life was a microcosm of America’s 20th century story of changes. Abbott was one of the people responsible for many social changes we now take for granted in our everyday life. The Cleveland Abbott story is one of excellence in character, personality and perseverance.
In a time of great hardships for his race, he found ways to accomplish the mission Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington asked of his followers, to prove the worth of a man is not color based.
We in South Dakota can point with pride to the man who overcame the discrimination of his birth, hardships of the South Dakota prairie, to be accepted by our ancestors who then helped shape Abbott’s early life, so he could take on challenges few of us could.
Cleveland Abbott was a leader his entire life. He showed a steady growth of lifetime leadership skills starting with his Watertown boyhood, academic and sport greatness then on World War One French battlefields followed by the Tuskegee Institute and then onto the world stage.
“I believe everyone owes Cleveland Abbott a thank you for opening the world of sports and equal rights to all people of every sex, color or creed†said Danielson.
Thousands of individuals directly benefited during his life and there millions who today, living the benefits of his work in:
- Equal Rights
- Civil Rights
- Women’s athletic breakthroughs
- Leader in modern NCAA athletics for all students
- First black member of USA Track & Field board
- First Black member of US Olympic Organizing Committee
- Champion of player safety
Cleveland Abbott’s approach to pain and suffering was to get into the arena quietly, with determination and South Dakota spirit to overcome life enormous obstacles.
For more information on Cleveland Abbott, please visit the highlighted exhibit in the South Dakota African American History located in the Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion or contact Bruce Danielson.
Click here to view Cleveland Abbott YouTube videos
Bruce Danielson