Cincinnati and the Reds will take center stage next weekend for Major League Baseball's Civil Rights Game.
Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali and Bill Cosby will be honored for their work with civil rights on Saturday at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards at the Duke Energy Center.
9News report, Tom McKee, profiles the living legend, Bill Cosby in advance of this honor.
Most people only know Bill Cosby from his comedy work and television show. They don't equate those accomplishments with the term civil rights icon. However, success gave him a platform to become a beacon for others to follow.
Bill Cosby's rise to fame began with his stand up comedy. That led to success on television, and that gave him a platform to speak out out social issues -- especially involving the African-American community.
Cosby's comedy albums are considered classics -- clean humor derived from daily life.
"I lived with my mother and father and then they had two more children," Cosby told an audience at the Aronoff in 2001. "And, the children, my understanding was, belonged to them. But, they kept saying, 'You watch them.' And, this bothered me because they were not my children."
That same humor carried over onto television in "The Cosby Show" where he played patriarch doctor Cliff Huxtable. His wife was a lawyer and the children experienced typical growing pains.
"He brought the black family to the consciousness of American society", says Mitch Livingston, vice-president of student services at the University of Cincinnati and a board member of the National Underground Freedom Center.
Livingston says Cosby showed that black families are no different than other families.
"Though entertaining, it was profound and deep and it really called upon young people to think about the consequences of their behaviors."
Education was a life long Cosby passion. In 1977, he earned a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. The University of Cincinnati awarded him an honorary degree in 2001. Livingston treasures the photograph taken with Cosby before that ceremony.
In recent years, Cosby has used his stardom to push for changes in the African-American community.
"For me, there is a time ladies and gentlemen when we have to turn the mirror around,” said Cosby. "You young men and old men -- you've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job -- because you didn't want to get an education."
"He called upon black men to be fathers. He called upon black children to be responsible. He called upon all of us to do the right thing and he took a lot of heat for that." Livingston says.
So, from comedy and t-v star to elder statesman, Bill Cosby has blazed a unique trail in the pursuit of civil rights.
As Mitch Livingston puts it: "He used every resource as his disposal to help change this country."
