The Revolt of the Black Athlete

50th Anniversary Edition

Harry Edwards

• Editorial: University of Illinois Press
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780252051548
• Categoría: Social Sciences
• Categoría: Sociology

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.

1

The Emergence of the Black Athlete in America

The Development of Black Athletics After Slavery

Prior to the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, most black people in America engaged only in recreational activities. Afro-Americans, those few blacks who supposedly enjoyed full citizenship during slavery, participated to some degree in actual athletic activities but these instances were, by all evidence, rare relative to the lack of participation by the masses of blacks. The full impact of black athletes upon American athletics awaited implementation of the provisions of emancipation and more particularly, the establishment of Negro educational institutions.1 With emancipation also came the development of black athletic clubs and colleges.

The major impetus to the development of Afro-American athletics during slavery and after emancipation were the racially and economically discriminatory practices of white Americans. Blacks were excluded from white athletic clubs, so they established their own. The reasons given for the exclusion were the same tired rationalizations and racist cover-ups that are so prevalent today in athletic circles. Some coaches felt that their “racially pure” white players would not play beside a black man. And although this assumption may have been true, few coaches ever tried playing blacks with whites in an effort to substantiate or disprove their feelings. Others claimed that their fans would not have attended games played by a biracial team. Still others simply believed that blacks were not capable of playing with the same degree of sophistication as white players. And many envisioned tremendous difficulty in scheduling games involving a mixed team. Whatever the reasons for black exclusion may have been, they were based on speculations heavily seasoned with white-supremacist leanings rather than facts. Yet these and other similar attitudes were so pervasive that Afro-Americans, caught up in the same drive toward increasing athletic participation that possessed whites in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America, set about establishing their own clubs. Although it is difficult to document the playing histories of black athletic clubs, what evidence there is tends to show that they performed as well as white teams, and in some cases, better. All-black baseball and basketball teams and leagues proliferated, and in later years they served as springboards into “big league” professional sports. In some instances, all-black teams did play all-white teams with, as might be expected by an unbiased observer, mixed results. They won some and they lost some. It is clear, however, that black teams fared much better than had been expected in these biracial contests. In 1928, for example, the all-black Renaissance Five defeated the famed all-white Celtics—the leading white basketball team of the time—and several other all-white aggregations. And these victories were not atypical, although they seemingly went unnoticed by the white sports-reporting establishment of the day.2

Much of the same was true of black baseball teams. Although they played mostly against one another, occasionally they challenged all-white teams or were challenged by them, the whites feeling fairly certain that they could “beat the niggers.” Such was not always the case. Here again black teams held their own, winning some and losing some.

Boxing, however, was to be the sport most heavily infiltrated by blacks, for it was the first American sport to permit widespread competition between blacks and whites, at least at the lower club levels. There had been black boxers for decades preceding the twentieth century, but it was not until the 1900’s that contending blacks were given shots at America’s white-dominated championship titles. Devout racists such as John L. Sullivan staunchly refused to fight black contenders, even as great a one as Peter Jackson in 1889.3 Even though there were several “Colored Boxing Champions of America,” the first black champion recognized by America and the world was Jack Johnson, who won the heavyweight championship from Tommy Burns on December 26, 1908. The breakthrough was a long time coming, considering the fact that blacks had been boxing by the same rules as whites and supposedly had been citizens of the same country as had many of the white champions for at least three to four decades.

The same circumstances surrounding the participation of Afro-Americans in baseball, basketball, and boxing pertained also to other club sports such as track, football, and tennis. Yet despite the racial and economic limitations, the black athletic clubs and the black boxers managed to survive and, to some extent, athletically, they even managed to prosper. It was the Negro colleges, however, that were most influential in bringing the Afro-American athlete into numerical prominence. And here, too, it was the enduring American institutions of racism and economic discrimination that determined the direction of this development.

The Negro Colleges and the National Emergence of the Black Athlete

Growing out of the ever increasing pressures toward racial segregation in America and the awesome need to educate the millions of newly-freed Afro-Americans, Negro colleges sprang up all over the United States. Such institutions as Hampton in Virginia, Lincoln University in Missouri, Tuskegee in Alabama, and Howard in Washington, D.C., became models for similar schools all over America. Most of them followed the George Washington Carver dictum of “separate as the fingers, but as like one as the hand.” These institutions, which were generally supported by philanthropic whites or by state funds controlled by racist government officials, endeavored to develop “safe” educational programs—meaning, of course, those that were non-threatening to whites. This plan was followed out of fear of loss of financial support, ignorance on the parts of school administrators, or just plain “Uncle Tomism.” At any rate, the result was the same. Courses in agriculture, mechanical skills, music, and physical education were over-represented in the curricula. Subjects dealing with abstract use of intellectual skills were singularly scarce. Many Negro colleges emphasized agricultural, mechanical, and industrial skills in their names. Such schools as Tennessee A. & I. State University (Agricultural and Industrial) and Arkansas A. & M. College (Agricultural and Mechanical) were, and are today, typical of colleges whose names designated their central educational focus. From the intellectual standpoint, these colleges might well have been renamed, substituting “Athletics and Ignorance” for “Agricultural and Industrial” and “Athletics and Music” for “Agricultural and Mechanical” (or “Athletics and Tomism” for “Agricultural and Technological”). For, as we mentioned, these colleges provided little in the way of intellectual substance for their students. White racist government administrators and often the philanthropists themselves felt that black people were happiest singing and dancing, working with their hands, and playing games. And not only would blacks be happier thus occupied, but white racists could feel much safer. Negro college administrators and faculties operated these colleges in ways that conformed to racist desires much as they do today. In fact, the persistence of these deplorable educational conditions, over a hundred years after emancipation, led black students on several predominantly Negro college campuses in the late 1960’s to revolt and demand the de-emphasis of athletics, music, and other non-intellectual endeavors in favor of more appropriate educational concerns. Typical of these uprisings were those occurring on the campuses of Grambling College in Louisiana, Howard University, and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where black students actually shut down the institutions over these issues.

Yet despite their educational shortcomings, or maybe because of them, Negro colleges have provided an avenue to athletic prominence for many black athletes. Not that no black athletes competed for white schools. Some predominantly white schools enrolled Afro-Americans from their inception. Others, such as Amherst, Harvard, and Tufts College, as well as other liberal New England schools, have histories of Afro-American participation in sports dating back many years.4 This statement should be qualified to some extent, however, for blacks were not always welcome to participate in all the athletic activities available. For instance, it is fairly common knowledge that Afro-Americans were, until very recently, unwelcome as basketball players on the courts of most “Big Ten” schools, particularly those of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, because basketball lagged behind football as a big-money sport and the drawing power of black basketballers thus was a minor consideration. And in some cases, this attitude toward black basketball players in the Big Ten Conference persists today, even though it is now socially and financially expedient that it be submerged.5 But notwithstanding long histories of token integration, most black athletes today, as in the past, play out their careers in predominantly Negro colleges.

America went through a depression and two world wars with its black-white collegiate separation unbroken. But with the end of World War II and the new orientations that this catastrophic event wrought, hitherto all-white schools began to reassess their policies of excluding black students in general and black athletes in particular. America, as one of many countries attempting to erase the scars left by war, turned enthusiastically and increasingly to organized athletics as diversion. With this growth in spectator interest and the resulting financial rewards from rising attendance figures, white schools could no longer afford to sit idly by and allow Negro colleges to siphon off potentially valuable black athletic prospects merely because of an accident of birth. Many of these white schools went into the South and actively recruited black athletes. Football players in particular were prime commodities, because football then, as today, has a greater finance-producing potential than any other sport. In this regard, it was no accident that when lily-white schools moved to integrate their athletic activities, football was usually the first sport involved. Some athletic clubs soon followed the lead of the colleges, but only a few.

So thanks to the impact of a world war, the Supreme Court decision outlawing separate educational facilities in the nation’s schools in 1954, and the urge on the part of whites once more to exploit blacks economically, Afro-Americans at long last were allowed to venture into big-time college athletics in significant numbers. (Parenthetically, but understandably, given the sub-par educational status of the Negro colleges, this integration was unidirectional, with many black athletes going to white schools but with few white athletes entering Negro schools.) From these integrated teams were to come many black athletes who were destined to achieve fame and fortune in professional sports. Negro colleges also continued to produce their share of athletic greats. But as far as most of America’s sports enthusiasts were concerned, unless an athlete achieved fame in one of the big-name, predominantly white institutions, he counted for little. And in this regard, the attitudes of the Afro-American public differed hardly at all from those held by the white majority. Even the most avid black follower of sports in America would have been hard pressed to name the selections to the “Negro All-American” first teams during the years of the late 1940’s to the middle 1950’s, except for those few blacks who made it big in pro athletics. But publicly, for all intents and purposes, blacks had finally been accepted as equals by whites—or at least those blacks who were superior enough to make first string ostensibly were accepted. So thoroughly has this myth been perpetuated that athletic excellence, even today, looms second only to education as a prescribed path for blacks to follow in escaping the humiliations and drudgery of their “second-class” citizenship. But what has integration really meant to the black athlete? What has this move really meant psychologically, socially, and educationally for him? Is the Afro-American athlete significantly better off in predominantly white schools than he was in all-black institutions?

Black Athletes in Predominantly White Colleges: The Shame and the Glory

With the emergence of racially mixed athletic teams, black athletes found themselves in refreshingly new but sometimes brutally dehumanizing educational and athletic environments. Not infrequently the black athlete approaches life and athletics on a predominantly white college campus with all the excited anticipation of a child at a carnival, but also with many misgivings. He was in the past, as he is today, usually somewhat unsure of his abilities—social, athletic, educational, and otherwise. He often feels during his first few weeks on campus that perhaps he has misjudged his athletic potential. Perhaps he has savored too long and too eagerly the cheers of his home town high school fans. Threatening his pride, his narcissism, is the gnawing fear that grips most prospective college athletes—he has perhaps chosen a school at which he is doomed to “ride the pines” for four solid years. Questions involving education also are a source of almost constant concern. Many black athletes come to predominantly white schools under “special adjustments” usually instituted on their behalf at the request of the coach at the college. Will they be able to make the grade academically—even with the help of the tutors promised them by the athletic department, and with the “Mickey Mouse” courses prescribed for them by their coaches—”just until they find their study legs?” Will they be able to write acceptable term papers and pass examinations in order to maintain their eligibility? What faces them if they fail? Such doubts and fears, as we have indicated, also plague white athletes. But compounding the black athlete’s concern is the question of his social life. When he is not in class or practicing, what will he be doing, how will he, a black athlete, spend his time? Will he be invited to join other students in typical college-centered activities? Indeed, will he even want to? His questions will be answered quickly and clearly, often shockingly.

The question of his athletic ability is usually the first of the black athlete’s questions to be answered, for it was athletic ability that brought him to the attention of the coaches in the first place. Before official practice even starts at most college campuses, the coaches of the various sports always make certain that their newly-recruited freshmen and transfer athletes have access to the necessary equipment to carry on “informal workouts on their own.” And the integrated, predominantly white colleges were not in the past, nor are they today, any different. Under the watchful, searching eyes of the coaches, the black athlete goes through his paces in football drills, pick-up basketball games, and batting and fielding drills on the diamond—and sometimes over the course of an academic year, he does all three. For the black athlete in the predominantly white school was and is first, foremost, and sometimes only, an athletic commodity. He is constantly reminded of this one fact, sometimes subtly and informally, at other times harshly and overtly, but at all times unequivocally. The black athlete is expected to “sleep, eat, and drink” athletics. His basketball, football, or baseball (depending upon the season) is to be his closest companion, his best friend, and in a very real sense, the symbol and object of his religious concern.

A black athlete generally fares well in athletic competition relative to other incoming athletes at a white-dominated college. The cards are somewhat stacked for him, however, because few black high school athletes get what are typically classified as second- and third-string athletic grants-in-aid. One simply does not find black athletes on “full-rides” at predominantly white schools riding the bench or playing second- or third-team positions. Second- and third-team athletic grants-in-aid are generally reserved for white athletes. A second-string black athlete is under infinitely more pressure than his white counterpart. For everyone expects a black athlete to excel athletically, and if he does not, he has let down the coach, the school, and the entire “Negro” race. He is suspected of “goldbricking,” breaking training, lacking concern for his teammates. (This central fact of the black athlete’s life will be discussed in detail later in this chapter.) Physically, black college athletes have stood the test in spite of the incessant, sometimes brutal, mental strains they have been forced to bear.

Educationally, black athletes have not been much better off at white schools than they would have been had they attended Negro colleges. And as much as white racist coaches and athletic directors would like to attribute the alleged lack of intellectual incentive among some black athletes to inherent racial failings, such is simply not the case. The fault lies in the “Mickey Mouse” courses into which black athletes are inevitably herded and with the coaching staffs at white schools who not only coach the black athletes, but often counsel them on academic matters. From the perspective of many white coaches and athletic directors, the world does not need black doctors, sociologists, chemists, dentists, mathematicians, computer operators, or biologists. Moreover, such lofty academic goals might jeopardize a black athlete’s college career and thus wipe out the colleges’ financial investment in him. What is more, how many black doctors, sociologists, chemists, dentists, or biologists, does the average white coach (or the average white man) know? Not many, if any at all; and so, his thinking goes, black people must not possess the necessary intellectual capacity to rise to such heights. So, the coaches conclude—when they think about it at all—why subject the “boy” to any more pressures, why add any additional strain to his load. Outline for him a four-year academic program that will qualify him for a B.S. degree (not necessarily designating Bachelor of Science) in basketweaving, car-washing, or gymnasium maintenance. Not many accredited schools offer degrees in such educationally dubious areas, however, and still fewer jobs are available for persons possessing such credentials. As a result, proportionately few black athletes graduate from predominantly white schools within the four-year time period covered by their span of collegiate eligibility. In fact, many never graduate at all. Having neither the personal funds to finish school after their athletic eligibility has expired nor the necessary academic background to qualify for aid on scholastic grounds, the black athlete simply falls by the wayside or takes his press clippings, trophies, awards, and his four years of irrelevant education and looks for any job he can find. If he is extremely lucky, he may be tapped by some professional team, but turning pro often opens up a whole new world of disappointment and frustration for him, as we shall see. By and large, most black athletes simply return to the ghettos and resume the life of drudgery and humiliation they knew before they went off to school.

Between 1957 and 1967 only seven out of twenty black football players graduated from the University of Washington; at the University of Oregon in the last three years, only six of eleven. Similarly dismal statistics prevail at the University of California at Berkeley, at Minnesota, at Michigan State, and so on and on. Wilt Chamberlain and Gale Sayers, among others, never graduated from Kansas U. In the 1966 N...