The Revolt of the Black Athlete hit sport and society like an Ali combination. This Fiftieth Anniversary edition of Harry Edwards's classic of activist scholarship arrives even as a new generation engages with the issues he explored. Edwards's new introduction and afterword revisit the revolts by athletes like Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. At the same time, he engages with the struggles of a present still rife with racism, double-standards, and economic injustice. Again relating the rebellion of black athletes to a larger spirit of revolt among black citizens, Edwards moves his story forward to our era of protests, boycotts, and the dramatic politicization of athletes by Black Lives Matter. Incisive yet ultimately hopeful, The Revolt of the Black Athlete is the still-essential study of the conflicts at the interface of sport, race, and society.
[PDF] The Revolt of the Black Athlete (Sport and Society)
In this exceedingly timely book, Louis Moore looks at the history of Black activist athletes and the important role of the Black community in insisting that the concept of fair play should apply not only to sports but to all segments of society. Arranged thematically, the book details Jackie Robinson's entry into baseball in 1945, when he signed with the Dodgers, and includes the revolt of Black athletes in the late 1960s, symbolized by Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously raising their clenched fists during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics. Accounts from the Black press and the athletes themselves help illustrate the role Black athletes played in the civil rights movement. At the same time, the book also examines how the Black public viewed sports and the contributions of Black athletes during these tumultuous decades, showing how a shared belief in merit and democracy combined with Black athletic success influenced the push for civil rights.
In this fine book, historian Moore (GVSU) explores the political (and politicized) role of the black athlete in the civil rights era from the end of WWII to the present day. Rather than trying to provide a comprehensive history, in this short, crisply written book, the author utilizes a wide array of examples that illustrate his main themes of how black athletes, their white allies, and figures such as journalists in the country's African American press fought racism in their sports and increasingly in US society at large. In addition to the famous names of activist black athletes, Moore also uncovers a number of more obscure but equally important stories. By restoring the role of the black press and taking an appropriately critical approach to many white 'allies' whose roles could sometimes be overstated, the author makes an especially vital contribution to understanding the ways race, sport, and politics intersected and are certain to continue to do so. This fine work of scholarship will work well in a wide range of college and graduate courses on sports, civil rights, and 20th century US history more broadly. Highly recommended.
This exceedingly timely book looks at the history of black activist athletes and the important role of the black community in making sure fair play existed, not only in sports, but across U.S. society.
Harry Edwards's The Revolt of the Black Athlete is a comprehensive account of black activism in the world of sport during the Civil Rights era. As a former student athlete and trained sociologist, Edwards is uniquely positioned to expose the realities for black athletes in the amateur sports world of collegiate athletics along with the oppression and subsequent struggle for respect and recognition as multidimensional human beings. This fiftieth edition of The Revolt of the Black Athlete supplements the original 1970 work with important updates along with modern context and analysis in the introduction. The Revolt of the Black Athlete is organized into six chapters with an ample six appendices providing further information and reference for the curious reader.
(KQED) When San Jose State University athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the 1968 Olympics Games, they made sports history and came to symbolize black power and protest in America. The two sprinters stand in a long line of SJSU sports pioneers, including Patty Sheehan, the first openly gay professional golfer, and Lee Evans, the track and field athlete who fought to exclude the apartheid state of Rhodesia from the 1972 Olympic Games. The University continues that legacy as it launches the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change. We discuss the new institute and the role and impact of protest in sport.
On June 4, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor and other prominent black athletes met in Cleveland in a show of support for Muhammad Ali, who had refused induction into the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector. Two weeks later, he was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison and stripped of his heavyweight title. 2ff7e9595c
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