Jessie Tompkins

Jessie Tompkins is a US athlete and educator from Bessemer, Alabama. Jesse Tompkins attended and ran track for the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama and later graduated from Bishop State Community College in Mobile, Alabama and the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama[1] and later from Alabama State University in Montgomery.

Track and field career

Tompkins led the nation in the indoor 50-yard hurdles (42-inch)[2] and the outdoor 400-meter hurdles in 1979 in high school. He led the nation in the junior college 400-meter hurdles and ranked among the top 50 U.S hurdlers in 1981, according to Track and Field News.[3] He organized and developed the East Montgomery Track Club for youths in rural Montgomery, Alabama.[4]

Personal best marks
  • 50-yard hurdles: 6.35, 1979
  • 60-meter hurdles: 7.51 s, 1982
  • 500 m dash 63.4 s, 1984
  • Long jump: 7.56 meters (24 ft, 8.25 in), 1980
  • 110 m hurdles: 14.0 s, 1984
  • 400 m hurdles: 50.6 s, 1981
  • 4 × 400 m relay: 45.08 s, 1982

Alabama State scholarship controversy

In 1997 he was the lead plaintiff in the Tompkins v. Alabama State University lawsuit, and one of four African American students who filed a lawsuit to eliminate racial requirements for the all-white scholarship program at Alabama State University.[5]

Tompkins's case was featured in the Wall Street Journal in an article presented by an American journalist, June Kronholz.

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jessie Tompkins.
  1. Mobile Press Register, Mobile Superstar Trackster wants to Lecture and write books, by Dennis Smitherman, 23 March 1986, p. B1
  2. Track and Field News, April 1979, vol. 32 #3, p. 53
  3. Track and Field News, January 1982, vol. 34 #12, p. 34
  4. Montgomery Advertiser News Paper, Runners Make National Competition, 22 July 2008,Tompkins Ranks 15th Nationally in Long Jump Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Malcolm Danial, The Montgomery Advertiser, "Students Fight college Program, ASU Scholarship Program Gains National Attention", 9 January 1998, p. B1


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