When Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton returned to Auburn to finish his degree a few years ago, a sociology professor began her first class by asking students to recall the first time the experienced everyday interactions with people of a different race.
Newton, sitting low in his seat near the back of the class, remembers being embarrassed to say that his first experience dealing extensively with non-blacks was as a 17-year-old freshman at Florida.
“Seventeen years of my life was devoted to an all-black, African-American community,” said Newton, who grew up in College Park, Ga., a south Atlanta suburb.