Jim Brown, one of four icons in the new movie ‘One Night in Miami,’ survived a scary time — in Dallas

One of the movies released in 2020 now generating Oscar buzz is One Night in Miami, which began streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 15. It’s about a real meeting that took place in Miami between civil rights icon Malcolm X, boxer Muhammad Ali, singer Sam Cooke and football legend Jim Brown. The meeting occurred in early 1964. Its purpose? To discuss the responsibility of being successful Black men during the civil rights movement.

All four had known the sting of racism, and for Brown — arguably the best running back in the history of the National Football League — the sting had been acutely felt in Dallas, where in 1957 he became only the second Black man to play in the annual Cotton Bowl Game.

Brown went on to play multiple times against the Dallas Cowboys in the Cotton Bowl before leaving professional football (prematurely) in 1966. But it was his experience as a college player that schooled him in the pain of Jim Crow oppression.

As a running back at Syracuse University, Brown played in the Cotton Bowl Game against Texas Christian University on Jan. 1, 1957, when Dallas was sharply segregated. Mike Bill, Brown’s teammate at Syracuse, reflected on the fear surrounding his teammate’s experience with the sports website, The Zone.

“The night before the game, because my last name is Bill and his is Brown, they had four FBI guys sitting between our rooms,” Bill said, alluding to the protection that Brown’s presence in Dallas warranted in the volatile years before the Civil Rights Act, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law four months after the meeting that inspired One Night in Miami.

Syracuse lost to TCU, 28-27, and yet, Brown — the only member of the foursome of One Night in Miami who’s still alive — won the award as the game’s Most Valuable Player for what was truly a phenomenal performance: Three touchdowns, 132 yards rushing and three extra points scored as the team’s kicker.

“We are a bunch of kids from upstate New York, and we didn’t have any problems with African-American guys on our team,” said Brown’s teammate, Bill. “I never realized in the 50s that Dallas was that way. We flew in never giving it a thought. But it really stirred a lot of emotions between TCU and ourselves. I can tell you that. I still remember that game vividly.”