SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Inspiring History: In the Cards

Matt Weathersby isn’t naive enough to believe that kids all over America will soon be eagerly swapping two Reggie Jackson baseball cards for one Jesse Jackson card. But the San Diego policeman hopes his new line of trading cards featuring “American history from a black perspective” will at least get youngsters thinking about more than batting averages.

We hope so, too. As Weathersby notes, without the contributions of the early civil-rights legends enshrined in the “On Black America” series--Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, James Meredith, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson and others--the African-American athletes now worshiped by kids of all races may never have had a chance to compete at the top levels.

Credit Rosa Parks as the inspiration for Weathersby’s venture, just as her refusal to give up a bus seat to a white passenger in 1955 is widely regarded as the spark for the modern civil rights movement. Weathersby, an African-American, voluntarily provided security services for Parks during her visit to San Diego in February. She joined Weathersby, his wife and three sons for dinner, and the family left that meal determined to make history real--and accessible--to a new generation of children.

“They tell me that, as young black males, my sons are considered an endangered species,” says Weathersby. “Well, I’m not going to let that happen.”

That’s a good reason to start a business. Certainly, it’s a positive counter to a Northern California company’s proposed card series featuring mass murderers. We would take a single Thurgood Marshall card over a thousand of those crime cards any day.