George Taliaferro was part of IU's only undefeated season on the way to a Big Ten Championship as a rookie, and was a trailblazer in the NFL draft. But it was his work off the field that made him 'an inspiration for the whole community.'
would supersede all state and local laws requiring segregation, Taliaferro was heavily restricted in where he could eat, shop and even live . Even restaurants such as the Gables, which proudly brandished Taliaferro's success as an athlete in its interior, would not serve African Americans.
While his teammates could catch a quick lunch at the Gables, Taliaferro had to walk several miles each day to take his meals at home before returning to the university. When Taliaferro began pushing to desegregate both IU’s campus and the Bloomington community, that restaurant — a prime example of how he and his peers were treated differently — seemed like the perfect stage to make a stand.called the Gables to ask if he and the student could dine there.
Taliaferro was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1949 and later played for professional franchises in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Baltimore and Philadelphia. He died in 2018 at the age of 91. While he may be remembered across the country for his impressive tenure on the national scale, Bloomington residents will remember his tireless fight against local injustice.
“He will go down in history because he made his name as a sports figure,” IU historian Jim Capshew told the H-T in a past report. “He went on and became an inspiration for the whole community.”
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