E.J. Bryan of Indianapolis Monthly recently interviewed author Phillip Hoose about his book Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City.

Bryan asked Hoose what he hoped readers took away from the book.

“How much kids, young people, and teens contributed to success in the Civil Rights movement. Oscar Robertson was 16 years old the night that they won the state tournament in 1955. These were all teenagers in American history. Kids are under-credited for some of the things they did. Here in Indiana, it was a weird way to make a statement through basketball, but they did. They made a Civil Rights statement by excelling at something that all Hoosiers valued, which is excellence in basketball.” —Phillip Hoose

Read the full interview from Indianapolis Monthly.