Yesterday marked the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest sports achievements in modern times. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile, completing the distance in 3:59.4. For centuries, “experts” had widely assumed that to run the distance in under four minutes was impossible for a human being. Entering Oxford in 1946, Bannister used his knowledge as a physician to painstakingly research the mechanical aspects of running and developed scientific methods to aid him while training with the university team. But the most remarkable part of Bannister’s feat was not the record he broke, but the trail he blazed.
Three-hundred fifty years ago—the mid 1700s—”experts” described English life as “the surface of the moon… pockmarked with extinct religious volcanic craters” and assumed cultural reform was impossible. Montesquieu remarked: “There is no religion in England. If anyone mentions religion people begin to laugh.” Many members of Parliament, along with other civic leaders, kept mistresses nearby in London. The “high civilization” and economic life of the Empire literally depended on the Slave Trade. Most people believed the abolition of slavery “couldn’t be done” since moral laxity extended all the way to the church, with English preachers being described as “pointless, boisterous, rude, coarse, and incoherent.”
It was William Wilberforce, born in 1759, who painstakingly researched the Slave Trade and believed it could be abolished. He formed a team—or community—of colleagues, achieving this momentous milestone in 1833, when the long and sorry record of the Slave Trade was abolished throughout the British Empire. But the most remarkable part of the Clapham Sect’s feat was not the record they broke, but the trail they blazed.
Roger Bannister’s record was broken within two months by John Landy, highlighting how the four-minute mile was as much a psychological as physical barrier. Bannister blazed a trail—thousands have run sub-four-minute miles since 1954. The Clapham Sect blazed a trail because they ultimately achieved seventy additional reforms—including a ban on bull fighting and bear baiting, suspension of the lottery, prison reform, improved working conditions in factories, banking reform, founding Sierra Leone as a colony for refugee slaves, and setting higher standards of morality for public officials and politics.
The twenty-first century presents us with daunting moral crises and challenges. But we don’t need “experts” lamenting “It can’t be done.” We need heroes like Bannister and Wilberforce, breaking records and—more importantly—blazing trails.
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