Editing Ricky Byrdsong (section)

==Personal life and death==
On July 2, 1999, while jogging near his [[Skokie, Illinois]] home with his son and daughter, ages 8 and 10, Byrdsong was shot by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a member of the [[white supremacist]] [[Creativity Movement]] who went on [[1999 Independence Day weekend shootings|a shooting spree]] that killed one person and injured ten others. Byrdsong died four hours later on July 3 at [[Evanston Hospital]]. Smith was a disciple of [[Matthew F. Hale|Mathew Hale]], the leader of Creativity Movement, and his shooting spree took place two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law in Illinois. According to eyewitnesses, Smith pulled alongside Byrdsong and shot him multiple times. Smith committed suicide on July 4 after he crashed his car into a metal post during a high-speed chase in Southern Illinois.

Byrdsong and his wife, Sherialyn, had three children: Sabrina, Kelley and Ricky Jr.<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_8_96/ai_55398754
|title=Ex-College Basketball Coach Ricky Byrdsong Killed In White Racist's Shooting Spree, Mourned
|date=July 26, 1999
|publisher=[[Jet magazine]]
|accessdate=April 25, 2008}}</ref>

===Media coverage and public reaction===
A fair amount{{Clarify|reason=vague|date=May 2019}} of media coverage was centered on the events of Byrdsong's death and his achievements as a former Northwestern basketball coach. In 2000, an award was created in his honor by the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative. Anya Cordell, Byrdsong's neighbor, wrote the anti-hate crime book ''Race: An Open and Shut Case''.  Cordell said that she was inspired by the urge to combat the hate that fueled Benjamin Smith's deadly shooting rampage. Byrdsong's children also received college scholarships from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, an organization which helps victims of families from hate crimes.

In 2009, a documentary about Byrdsong, entitled ''Fly Like the Byrd'', was created by Northwestern students from the [[Medill School of Journalism]]. The 25-minute documentary examines race relations and how his legacy has lived on, ten years later.<ref>[https://vimeo.com/5204860 Fly Like The Byrd], Vimeo, Retrieved on January 23, 2018</ref>