The Ongoing Sports Revolution

 Sport, Society and Social Change

I think the 1960s is a pivotal time in American society. It’s a time of revolutionary change in the world of sports for both men and women of all races. Although the color line was broken by Jackie Robinson in 1947, it wasn’t until the 1960s that America’s professional leagues had witnessed complete integration. The 1960s is a transformative movement in sports history. It changed the visible world and the foreseeable future. It placed the black athlete in a position of responsibility and influence to bring, as Jim Brown would argue, “African Americans to the forefront on every level.” 

This is a history lesson in of itself. The previous century saw the rise of the black athlete and the fear created by his success. The color line instantly followed segregating sports  just as it had normal facets of daily life. Keep in mind that the NHL started its desegregation process in 1958 but remains racist, the NBA (1947/1950 had Asian and African American players after having a generation of black athletes in the 1920s), and similarly the NFL which also had a generation of black stars began integrating again between 1946-1962.  Yet, all followed MLB which had a watershed moment which highlighted the talents of black stars leading to championships.  Yet, racism remained visible in all four professional sports. The Red Sox were the last MLB team to integrate in 1959, but it was not the last sports franchise to refuse black players. 

The world of amateur sports was hardly better. Although there were black olympians, southern colleges refused black athletes. Throughout the 1960s, college sports slowly integrated. Football and basketball were the worse offenders. The ACC, SEC, and Southwest Conferences did not have black basketball players on their teams during the 1965-66 season.  While non-conference affiliated Texas Western’s 1966 NCAA victory over Kentucky changed college basketball, with five black starters, many schools still refused to play black athletes or feature black starters. The following season, however, that pattern slowly gave way to gradual changes. In 1970, for example, the Universities of Texas and Arkansas became the last Southwest Conference football teams to integrate and the University of Mississippi became the last Southeastern Conference football team to integrate in 1971. 

Sports historian Renford Reese suggests that the late 1960s to early 1970s activism by amateur and professional athletes reached a peak: “at no other time in American sports history have black athletes publicly identified withe the struggle and outwardly challenged the system.”  Concerning the end of the decade, he wrote: “Money and competition were the two major factors that drove the complete integration of teams.” By the 1970s, he and others argued the era of tokenism in sports was over: organizations had to adapt to the new reality of competition or simply lose. 

Sports and activism forged a partnership in California. The Golden State was the home of the Bloods, Crips, US, the Black Panthers and the Black Power Movement. It was also a center of the black college student revolution that gave rise to Black Studies programs. The Bay Area was home of several of the colleges that birthed Black Studies.  A central figure in this dynamic was a young student by the name of Harry Edwards. In 1960, the athletic Edwards left Fresno City College and entered San Jose State University. He graduated in 1964 and left for Cornell University. By the time he earned his doctorate, armed black students at Cornell had taken over the student union and demanded a black studies program and a segregated black dormitory.

From 1968 when he published the Revolt of the Black Athlete to 2000 the year of his retirement from UC Berkeley, Edward’s life seems to serve as the trajectory for the radicalism of sports, academics and activism. He has served as an advisor to MLB, the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors. He is revered as the godfather of modern black sports activism. I credit Dr. Edwards with changing the way that we see sports, especially gender, race, protest and activism. But I wonder if the black athlete, in particular, has fallen off of the path forged by Dr. Edwards?

To understand this era, you must look at the 1960s and the early 1970s. Dr. Joseph Moore, my colleague and an important historian of sports, tells us that the intersection of gender and race is tied to the Civil Rights Movement. He argues that the real Civil Rights Movement begins with Doby and Robinson, not Rosa Parks. I think he would say it begins with baseball and ends with Title IX. 

It is hard to pinpoint the singular moment of change, but there are several key flashpoints. One has to be the fights between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston (Feb 25, 1964) and then Clay’s conversion to Islam (May 25, 1965). Another is Curt Flood refusing to be traded and challenging baseball’s reserve clause in 1969. But the one that holds the most significance is the work of the United Black Students for Action (UBSA). Formed in 1967 by Harry Edwards and Kenneth Noel, the UBSA boycotted the San Jose State UTEP football game in 1967 leading to its cancellation. A year later as the Olympic Project for Human Rights, Edwards encouraged black athletes to boycott the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games. It also supported the boycotting of South Africa’s reinstatement to the Olympics and the New York Athletic Club’s Indoor Track Classic which featured America’s indoor mile classic race. 

        Early protests in sports mirrored the Civil Rights Movement. They led to personal sacrifices, lengthy struggles and community engagement. Change in sports, like in the real world, occurred very slowly. When we look at Tommie Smith and John Carlos we see how promising lives were destroyed by the struggles. Black athletes became heroes to young children not just for their activities on the field. Like every day people marching and protesting, decisions made by Ali, Jabbar, Russell, Robinson and countless others affected them and their communities. And because the black athlete was working class to middle class in income, most needed other forms of employment. This overlooked factor supported the need for struggle. Yet, it caused problems in terms of patronage, making the risks associated with fighting for social justice extremely dangerous.

        Flash forward to the legal protest of Curt Flood, which changed baseball's reserve clause and brought about free agency. Flood's actions helped make baseball players millionaires. And the impact trickled into the other major sports making other athletes equally wealthy. Unfortunately, it did not help Flood. Today's students know nothing about the Hall of Fame Gold Glove outfielder, a bit about the white union leader Marvin Miller, but slightly more about the two white players who furthered Flood's legal cause. Yet, without Flood, none of today's baseball players would have a six figure minimum income. 

        Even the significance of the recent activism of Colin Kaepernick is lost on many.  Although Kaepernick was a beneficiary of the changing nature of sports, his protests threatened the social order and our political culture reverted back to the 1960s Civil Rights backlash. Far too many white Americans rejected his protests about police brutality and simply hoped that he would be quiet and make his community donations in silence.  In response to the social and political pressures, the NFL owners treated him as a modern version of Curt Flood. After they blackballed him, and he sued, they paid him off hoping that they could buy away the outrage of black players, fans and their allies.  Eventually, though the NFL was forced to address racism following the watershed death of George Floyd. However, not one team has signed Colin Kaepernick!

        This brings me to two current dilemmas: 1) should today's black athletes fight for equality for all athletes and 2) should black athletes accept that they must be role models and speak in this forum rather than as private citizens?  

    I don't have the answers to my questions. However, I do know that the role of black athletes will never be the same. Never again will the African American athlete have to have a service oriented position in the off-season. This freedom will enable athletes to use the power of guaranteed contracts to speak their minds if they choose to do so. As a result, future black athletes will be able to use their voices in unique ways. 

    For me this means that the black athlete should consider that he/she will be seen as a role model in silence and in activism. We have started to see the differences as WNBA players protest team ownership, MLS players challenge racism, and NBA and NFL players contest societal pressures to vaccinate. The media and the general public will continue to press black athletes looking for strong statements and flubbed commentary. The media and public will either approve of or denounce their efforts. However, one thing is very clear, that is that athletes of color will never be able to retreat to a world of silence. Rather they will have to consider when it is best for them to take up the mantle of being a race man or race woman.  

I think 2022 will reveal itself to be the year of the African American Athlete.