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Being Black in Lincoln: Basketball success didn't always protect Dominique Kelley from racism

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A Lee Enterprises, Incorporated newspaper. Majority shareholder: David Hoffmann, Hoffmann Media Group.

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Being Black in Lincoln: Basketball success didn't always protect Dominique Kelley from racism

From the Being Black in Lincoln: The series series

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Before each game this year, Dominique Kelley’s Lincoln High girls varsity basketball team took a stand by kneeling in support of the Black Lives Matter cause.

Courtesy photo

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Dominique Kelley was a four-year starter for the Nebraska women’s basketball team, winding up as the No. 23 all-time scorer.

Courtesy photo

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Dominique Kelley

Courtesy photo

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Dominique Kelley with her husband, Clyde Johnson, and 4-year-old son, Kyrie. She said she remembers being afraid for her son because of the climate of the country.

Courtesy photo

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Being Black in Lincoln: The series

More than 150 years after America’s slaves were freed and Nebraska gave birth to its capital, a UNL journalism class posed the question: What’…

About the series

More than 150 years after America’s slaves were freed and Nebraska gave birth to its capital, a UNL journalism class posed the question: What’s it like to be Black in Lincoln?

Students spent 15 weeks digging deep into the lives of a dozen residents representing a cross-section of Lincoln’s Black community: former basketball stars, BLM leaders, preachers, teachers, cops, convicts, businessmen, chefs, electricians and youth leaders. They discovered many had faced racial profiling, housing discrimination and police harassment, while others received ugly death threats, verbal abuse and hate-filled letters. The students also found that these Black citizens think Lincoln’s racial climate has improved overall but still has a ways to go. And most believed that it will get there.

The semester-long depth-reporting project was overseen by professors Joe Starita and Jennifer Sheppard and instructor Roger Holmes.

Other stories will be featured this summer in the Journal Star and at JournalStar.com.

In this Series

Being Black in Lincoln: The series

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Dominique Kelley

Dominique Kelley with her husband, Clyde Johnson, and 4-year-old son, Kyrie. She said she remembers being afraid for her son because of the climate of the country.

Before each game this year, Dominique Kelley’s Lincoln High girls varsity basketball team took a stand by kneeling in support of the Black Lives Matter cause.

Dominique Kelley was a four-year starter for the Nebraska women’s basketball team, winding up as the No. 23 all-time scorer.

Dominique Kelley

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