Playfulness can be serious business, Brian Hallstoos asserts in this episode, pointing to century-old publications from the University of Dubuque. By engaging in “playful play,” Black student Sol Butler made friends in the early 1900s and helped build a campus community that was less likely to express and tolerate anti-Black racism. Yet photographs and text also point to the limits of playfulness in combatting hate.

Featuring Brian Hallstoos, Associate Professor of History at the University of Dubuque

Interviewer, Annalee R. Ward, Director of the Wendt Character Initiative at the University of Dubuque

The content in this episode comes from Brian Hallstoos’s article, "Defusing Racism: Olympian Sol Butler’s Serious Playfulness," from Character and . . . Play, volume 9 of the Wendt Center for Character Education’s annual journal, Character and . . . .

Find other character resources and Wendt Center publications here or learn more about the Wendt Character Initiative here.