Author/Producer/Actress Maya Washington "Through the Banks of the Red Cedar"

Author/Producer/Actress Maya Washington chats about her new book "Through the Banks of the Red Cedar."

Based on the award-winning documentary – THROUGH THE BANKS OF THE RED CEDAR - coming to PBS in February 2022, Maya Washington’s memoir is warm & deeply moving…chronicling a daughter’s love for her father and her appreciation for how he and others changed the game of football forever…showing how racial issues impacted the sport during the 20th century.

Growing up Maya Washington didn’t see her father as the world knew him to be—Michigan State University and Minnesota Viking football legend, Gene Washington—she knew him as Dad. Based on Maya’s award-winning documentary, THROUGH THE BANKS OF THE RED CEDAR: My Father and the Team That Changed the Game (Little A; January 1, 2022) follows her journey of uncovering just how difficult Gene’s youth in segregated Texas was, and his unorthodox rise to college football stardom at MSU during the height of the Civil Rights movement.  In this coming-of-age story, Maya narrates her father’s experiences with racial discrimination as a Black athlete from the segregated South and how his perseverance contributed to her own limited privilege.