Black athletes in a White America

[1]

As I am starting to conduct my initial research, I came across a book titled, Glory Bound: Black athletes in a White America,[2] that really covered every base needed to start research on athletes breaking color lines in America. This book captures everything from talking about those who went from the plantation to the playing field, to those such as Peter Jackson who struggled against the color line issue in America even in the late Nineteenth century. In addition, I learned the view of black athletes changed with the civil rights movement.

For starters, I really just want to learn how African Americans initially made the jump into white dominated sports after coming from slavery roots. From reading, I learned that the slaves would sometimes get a chance for "play" some days  and through this, they were able to capture their abilities and freedoms of what it was like to engage in a sport. Through 'play' is also where slave children would have the chance to become a little bit more educated. For one instance, a slave talked about how he learned his ABC's on the playing field. From the beginning, you can tell how blacks did not have as many privileges as white in not even having the chance to get an education unless it was through sports. Of all the reading done of this topic, I think the biggest difference that I found was the difference in equipment for each race. Whites would have nicer, equipment that they could buy and the blacks had to make the equipment themselves, usually from old scraps such as a baseball being made form yarn and a sock. From all of this, the best part to note is that these slave children would take pride in themselves and in their own self-worth as not only athletes, but also human beings too.
As I read further, I started to answer my question about how racial barriers have changed over time and they relate to today. One account is Peter Jackson, who was one of the first prominent fighters to emerge from black society to take on a well known white fighters. Yet, it should be known that at first, some white fighters wouldn't even get into the same ring as him because he was colored. Later on, he become the reigning world champion of boxing for years to come. It's important to remember that his father, also called Peter Jackson, was a warehouseman and he was the grandson of a freed slave who had been owned by a planter with the name of Jackson. This is just one account that shows how African Americans were coming from slave roots, but were slowly starting to make a name for themselves in the professional sports world early on in history. This is one story to think about as time moves forward for black athletes making their mark.


If we fast forward to the mid-twentieth century, we also see how color barriers are still an issue way after peter Jackson's time and shortly after Jesse Owens. As the Black Press started to become involved, talk such as "athletics were clearly no solution to the problems of race", they sort of set the stage as a way in for African Americans to have their voices heard. As the Civil Right movement came into full swing, social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to secure legal and federal protection of the citizen rights were very prevalent. This is important because this is what launched African American athletes to take a stand for their race when it came to sports.


All in all, this book helped me to gain a better perspective on everything that African Americans went through besides just competing for their sport. From learning where racial lines were first drawn with slavery to learning how they fought for their rights as equal citizens in the civil rights era, African American athletes have truly earned their mark and voice to be recognized. As I start my research, I want to use the info that I learned in this book to give me a solid background of where I can go in researching about racial barriers in sports and just how much it correlates with the rest of African American history in sports as a whole.


I chose this book because I knew it was credible and trustworthy. This is because the author has his personal info included, as well as the publishers info. The book also tells where it is published, which is by the Syracuse University Press. In addition, the back of the book is filled with footnotes to topics discussed through the entire book and the places that the reader can go to get further info. Also, there is a bibliographic essay provided with reference to the sources used again in the book. From all of this, I can tell that the author's tone is clear and reliable because he includes all of these works in the book and goes into depth about every subject in each of the chapters, so that the reader can have a better understanding of the topics of each. With this, I realized that the purpose of the text was to go over this complex topic of what African Americans, specifically athletes, have experienced over the years and how they can participate in their sport while still being proud of their own cultural identity. Another key purpose that this book goes over is how the face of African American sports being recognized changed over time in the American culture. With this being said, these are perfect for the purpose of my research because it gives me lots of knowledge now to go off of besides knowing just about Jesse Owens and Nazi Germany. With this, I also started to think more in depth about where I want my research to head, but I still want to get some additional knowledge from other sources about racial barriers in professional sports in America overall.






















[1] Wiagins, David K. Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997.
 [2]Wiagins, David K. Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997.