Download or read book Boston s Black Athletes written by Robert Cvornyek and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boston's Black Athletes interprets Boston's contested racial history through the diverse experiences of the city's African American sports figures. The contributors explore a variety of representative athletes that negotiated Boston's racial boundaries at sequential moments in time to demonstrate Boston's long and troubled racial history.
Download or read book The Heritage written by Howard Bryant and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following in the footsteps of Robeson, Ali, Robinson and others, today’s Black athletes re-engage with social issues and the meaning of American patriotism Named a best book of 2018 by Library Journal It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. The ballfield was an escape from the world’s worst problems, top athletes were treated like heroes, and cheering for the home team was as easy and innocent as hot dogs and beer. “No news on the sports page” was a governing principle in newsrooms. That was then. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. In fact, among all black employees in twentieth-century America, perhaps no other group had more outsized influence and power than ballplayers. The immense social responsibilities that came with the role is part of the black athletic heritage. It is a heritage built by the influence of the superstardom and radical politics of Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos through the 1960s; undermined by apolitical, corporate-friendly “transcenders of race,” O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods in the following decades; and reclaimed today by the likes of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and Carmelo Anthony. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.
Download or read book Boston s Black Athletes written by Robert Cvornyek and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sport often mirrored the racial climate of the time, but it also informed and encouraged equality on and off the field. In Boston, the Black athletic body historically represented a challenge to the city’s liberal image. Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism interprets Boston’s contested racial history through the diverse experiences of the city’s African American sports figures who directed their talent toward the struggle for social justice. Editors Robert Cvornyek and Douglas Stark and the contributors explore a variety of representative athletes, such as Kittie Knox, Louise Stokes, and Medina Dixon, that negotiated Boston’s racial boundaries at sequential moments during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to demonstrate Boston’s long and troubled racial history. The contributors’ biographical sketches are grounded in stories that have remained memorable within Boston’s Black neighborhoods. In recounting the struggles and triumphs of these individuals, this book amplifies their stories and reminds readers that Boston’s Black sports fans found a historic consistency in their athletes to shape racial identity and cultural expression.
Download or read book Taboo written by Jon Entine and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In virtually every sport in which they are given opportunity to compete, people of African descent dominate. East Africans own every distance running record. Professional sports in the Americas are dominated by men and women of West African descent. Why have blacks come to dominate sports? Are they somehow physically better? And why are we so uncomfortable when we discuss this? Drawing on the latest scientific research, journalist Jon Entine makes an irrefutable case for black athletic superiority. We learn how scientists have used numerous, bogus "scientific" methods to prove that blacks were either more or less superior physically, and how racist scientists have often equated physical prowess with intellectual deficiency. Entine recalls the long, hard road to integration, both on the field and in society. And he shows why it isn't just being black that matters—it makes a huge difference as to where in Africa your ancestors are from.Equal parts sports, science and examination of why this topic is so sensitive, Taboois a book that will spark national debate.
Download or read book Shut Out written by Howard Bryant and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shut Out is the compelling story of Boston's racial divide viewed through the lens of one of the city's greatest institutions - its baseball team, and told from the perspective of Boston native and noted sports writer Howard Bryant. This well written and poignant work contains striking interviews in which blacks who played for the Red Sox speak for the first time about their experiences in Boston, as well as groundbreaking chapter that details Jackie Robinson's ill-fated tryout with the Boston Red Sox and the humiliation that followed.
Download or read book Better than the Best written by John C. Walter and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these engaging and forthright interviews, thirteen African American athletes talk about how they endured through pain, loneliness, and rejection to become champions. In sports as diverse as football and fencing, wrestling and track and field, these men and women triumphed over the odds to become better than the best. Their legacy is in their accomplishments and in their determination to continue contributing to the societal transformation their efforts helped make possible. A V Ethel Willis White Book
Download or read book More Black Athletes in the Media written by Michael A. Banks and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-02-13 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published as a dissertation in 1993, this revised edition of Black Athletes in the Media is a sociohistorical documentation of trends in the characterization of black athletes in the news media. This study seeks to demonstrate and explain the ambiguity and dilemma of black acceptance in the American ideal with respect to black sporting achievements over the Twentieth Century. The evolution of black stereotypes, depictions and generalizations are traced and exposed in contemporary media. With respect to the media as the foremost propagator of the racial stereotype, it has the ability to shape, influence and arouse public opinion through the manipulation of controversial events. As a result, social imagination is thus enhanced by this authority and keeper of social values. The major attention given to black and ethnic athletes by the media represents and reflects a consistent pattern of racial assessments and stereotypical journalistic attitudes.
Download or read book Black Gods of the Asphalt written by Onaje X. O. Woodbine and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J-Rod moves like a small tank on the court, his face mean, staring down his opponents. "I play just like my father," he says. "Before my father died, he was a problem on the court. I'm a problem." Playing basketball for him fuses past and present, conjuring his father's memory into a force that opponents can feel in each bone-snapping drive to the basket. On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half-men, half-heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket. Basketball is popular among young black American men but not because, as many claim, they are "pushed by poverty" or "pulled" by white institutions to play it. Black men choose to participate in basketball because of the transcendent experience of the game. Through interviews with and observations of urban basketball players, Onaje X. O. Woodbine composes a rare portrait of a passionate, committed, and resilient group of athletes who use the court to mine what urban life cannot corrupt. If people turn to religion to reimagine their place in the world, then black streetball players are indeed the hierophants of the asphalt.
Download or read book The Heritage written by Howard Bryant and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following in the footsteps of Robeson, Ali, Robinson and others, today’s Black athletes re-engage with social issues and the meaning of American patriotism Named a best book of 2018 by Library Journal It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. The ballfield was an escape from the world’s worst problems, top athletes were treated like heroes, and cheering for the home team was as easy and innocent as hot dogs and beer. “No news on the sports page” was a governing principle in newsrooms. That was then. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. In fact, among all black employees in twentieth-century America, perhaps no other group had more outsized influence and power than ballplayers. The immense social responsibilities that came with the role is part of the black athletic heritage. It is a heritage built by the influence of the superstardom and radical politics of Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos through the 1960s; undermined by apolitical, corporate-friendly “transcenders of race,” O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods in the following decades; and reclaimed today by the likes of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and Carmelo Anthony. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.
Download or read book Forty Million Dollar Slaves written by William C. Rhoden and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-02-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An explosive and absorbing discussion of race, politics, and the history of American sports.”—Ebony From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. Provocative and controversial, Rhoden’s $40 Million Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays. Rhoden reveals that black athletes’ “evolution” has merely been a journey from literal plantations—where sports were introduced as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings—to today’s figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. He details the “conveyor belt” that brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time programs, where they’re cut off from their roots and exploited by team owners, sports agents, and the media. He also sets his sights on athletes like Michael Jordan, who he says have abdicated their responsibility to the community with an apathy that borders on treason. The power black athletes have today is as limited as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The primary difference is, today’s shackles are invisible. Praise for Forty Million Dollar Slaves “A provocative, passionate, important, and disturbing book.”—The New York Times Book Review “Brilliant . . . a beautifully written, complex, and rich narrative.”—Washington Post Book World “A powerful call for more black athletes to give back to their communities.”—Los Angeles Times
Download or read book The Strange Career of the Black Athlete written by Russell T. Wigginton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-06-30 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few realize that some sports were integrated, or even dominated by blacks, before becoming dominated by whites, for example, horse racing, golf, hockey, and tennis. This book provides a lens through which to view the historical context and specific circumstances of African Americans' presence in various sports. The author asks why sport has at times challenged the status quo with regard to race and civil rights, and at other times reinforced it. To that end, he analyzes various sports and asks why and when has each sport responded differently. Wigginton asks how did blacks break the color barrier? Were they able to maintain representation in the particular sport? And did the entrance of blacks in these sports change the public's perception of the sport? The answers to these questions shed light on why America remains preoccupied with sports, race, and the seemingly integral relationship between the two.
Download or read book Sport and the Color Line written by Patrick B. Miller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-06-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 2003 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois' "Souls of Black Folk," in which he declared that "the color line" would be the problem of the twentieth century. Half a century later, Jackie Robinson would display his remarkable athletic skills in "baseball's great experiment." Now, "Sport and the Color Line" takes a look at the last century through the lens of sports and race, drawing together articles by many of the leading figures in Sport Studies to address the African American experience and the history of race relations. The history of African Americans in sport is not simple, and it certainly did not begin in 1947 when Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. The essays presented here examine the complexity of black American sports culture, from the organization of semi-pro baseball and athletic programs at historically black colleges and universities, to the careers of individual stars such as Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, to the challenges faced by black women in sports. What are today's black athletes doing in the aftermath of desegregation, or with the legacy of Muhammad Ali's political stance? The essays gathered here engage such issues, as well as the paradoxes of corporate sport and the persistence of scientific racism in the athletic realm.
Download or read book Marathon Woman written by Kathrine Switzer and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to officially run what was then the all male Boston Marathon, infuriating one of the event's directors who attempted to violently eject her. In what would become an iconic sports image, Switzer escaped and finished the race. This was a watershed moment for the sport, as well as a significant event in women's history. Including updates from the 2008 Summer Olympics, the paperback edition of Marathon Woman details the life of an incredible, pioneering athlete, and the lasting effect she's had on women's sports. Switzer's energy and drive permeate the pages of this warm, witty memoir as she describes everything from the childhood events that inspired her to succeed to her big win in the 1974 New York City Marathon, and beyond.
Download or read book Pioneers of Black Sport written by Ocania Chalk and published by Dodd Mead. This book was released on 1975 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brief biographies emphasizing the career achievements of well-known black athletes in baseball, basketball, boxing, and football.
Download or read book Out of the Shadows written by David K. Wiggins and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2008-02-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original essays in this comprehensive collection examine the lives and sports of famous and not-so-famous African American male and female athletes from the nineteenth century to today. Here are twenty insightful biographies that furnish perspectives on the changing status of these athletes and how these changes mirrored the transformation of sports, American society, and civil rights legislation. Some of the athletes discussed include Marshall Taylor (bicycling), William Henry Lewis (football), Jack Johnson, Satchel Paige, Jesse Owens, Joe Lewis, Alice Coachman (track and field), Althea Gibson (tennis), Wilma Rudolph, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Venus and Serena Williams.
Download or read book Black Baseball 1858 1900 written by James E. Brunson III and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 1402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is one of the most important baseball books to be published in a long time, taking a comprehensive look at black participation in the national pastime from 1858 through 1900. It provides team rosters and team histories, player biographies, a list of umpires and games they officiated and information on team managers and team secretaries. Well known organizations like the Washington's Mutuals, Philadelphia Pythians, Chicago Uniques, St. Louis Black Stockings, Cuban Giants and Chicago Unions are documented, as well as lesser known teams like the Wilmington Mutuals, Newton Black Stockings, San Francisco Enterprise, Dallas Black Stockings, Galveston Flyaways, Louisville Brotherhoods and Helena Pastimes. Player biographies trace their connections between teams across the country. Essays frame the biographies, discussing the social and cultural events that shaped black baseball. Waiters and barbers formed the earliest organized clubs and developed local, regional and national circuits. Some players belonged to both white and colored clubs, and some umpires officiated colored, white and interracial matches. High schools nurtured young players and transformed them into powerhouse teams, like Cincinnati's Vigilant Base Ball Club. A special essay covers visual representations of black baseball and the artists who created them, including colored artists of color who were also baseballists.
Download or read book All Eyes are Upon Us written by Jason Sokol and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Northeastern United States -- home to abolitionism and a refuge for blacks fleeing the Jim Crow South -- has had a long and celebrated history of racial equality and political liberalism. After World War II, the region appeared poised to continue this legacy, electing black politicians and rallying behind black athletes and cultural leaders. However, as historian Jason Sokol reveals in All Eyes Are Upon Us, these achievements obscured the harsh reality of a region riven by segregation and deep-seated racism. White fans from across Brooklyn -- Irish, Jewish, and Italian -- came out to support Jackie Robinson when he broke baseball's color barrier with the Dodgers in 1947, even as the city's blacks were shunted into segregated neighborhoods. The African-American politician Ed Brooke won a senate seat in Massachusetts in 1966, when the state was 97% white, yet his political career was undone by the resistance to busing in Boston. Across the Northeast over the last half-century, blacks have encountered housing and employment discrimination as well as racial violence. But the gap between the northern ideal and the region's segregated reality left small but meaningful room for racial progress. Forced to reckon with the disparity between their racial practices and their racial preaching, blacks and whites forged interracial coalitions and demanded that the region live up to its promise of equal opportunity. A revelatory account of the tumultuous modern history of race and politics in the Northeast, All Eyes Are Upon Us presents the Northeast as a microcosm of America as a whole: outwardly democratic, inwardly conflicted, but always striving to live up to its highest ideals.
