The Revolt of the Black Athlete: 50th Anniversary Edition

244 Pages·2018·4.16 MB·English

by  Harry Edwards

The Revolt of the Black Athlete
SPORT AND SOCIETY
Series Editors
Randy Roberts
Aram Goudsouzian
Founding Editors
Benjamin G. Rader
Randy Roberts
A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.
The Revolt of the
Black Athlete
50th Anniversary Edition
HARRY EDWARDS
With a New Introduction
and Afterword
© 1970, 1969 by The Free Press
© 2017 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
Reprinted by arrangement with the author.
The Library of Congress cataloged the cloth edition as follows: Names: Edwards, Harry,
1942– author.
Title: The revolt of the Black athlete / Harry Edwards.
Description: 50th anniversary edition. | Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2017. | Series:
Sport and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017000461 | ISBN 9780252041075 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: African
American athletes—History—20th century. | African American athletes—Political activity
—History—20th century. | African American athletes—Social conditions. | Sports—
Social aspects—United States History—20th century. | Sports—Political aspects—United
States—History—20th century. | Sports—United States—History—20th century. |
Discrimination in sports—United States—History—20th century. | BISAC: SOCIAL
SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies African American Studies. | SPORTS & RECREATION
History. | HISTORY United States 20th Century.
Classification: LCC GV583 .E36 2017 | DDC 796.089/96073—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000461
Paperback ISBN 978-0-252-08406-5
Contents
Dedication: In Memory of Muhammad Ali, 1942–2016
Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition
Foreword Samuel J. Skinner, Jr.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 The Emergence of the Black Athlete in America
2 Sports and the Mass Media
3 Mounting the Revolt
4 Feeding the Flame
5 Mexico City, 1968
6 The Future Direction of the Revolt
Epilogue
Appendices
A Olympic Project for Human Rights
B The Revolt on the Campus
C The Black Record-Holders
D 1968 National Black Power Conference Statement
E Information Booklet Excerpts
Selected Bibliography
Afterword to the 50th Anniversary Edition
Index
Illustrations follow page 100
Dedication
In Memory of Muhammad Ali, 1942–2016
I first met him just before my freshman year at San Jose State. Ali—then Cassius
Clay—was training for the 1960 Rome Olympics and the boxing coach, Julie
Menendez, was also the boxing coach at San Jose State. Both Julie and I were
from East St. Louis, Illinois, and he invited me over to meet some of the boxers,
especially the younger ones. (Ali was born in January of 1942, I was born in
November of that same year). Julie warned me that he couldn’t “stop Clay from
talking,” and he was right. Upon meeting him, I thought at the time that Cassius
Clay was “nuts.” Of course, he wasn’t nuts, just an extremely talented, brashly
confident, wonderfully unique and iconoclastic personality, especially for a
“Negro” athlete in those times. There was no way that I could’ve anticipated that
our paths would intersect as they ultimately did over the years or the auspices
under which that would happen. And now it is done.
It is only when a giant passes from among us and we stand blurry-eyed and
blinking in the glaring reality of our loss that we come truly to appreciate the
extent to which we all really had just been living in his shadow. So it is with
Muhammad Ali. Though it is too early to tell what the full scope and
significance of his life contributions have been, some aspects of his legacy are
already evident: he was an athlete of unparalleled brilliance, beauty, and bravado
at a time when Black athletes (other than the Globetrotters) were expected to be
seen, not heard—silent, self-effacing producers, not loquacious, verbose,
entertaining performers who attracted attention to themselves. In the broader
popular culture, he almost singlehandedly deepened our understanding of
religious freedom as something more than an American historical and political
cliché. He influenced, even provoked people from the most powerful (Dr. Martin