Crossing the Line: Sport and the Limits of Civil Rights Protest

Abstract

Scholars have ably considered the extent to which sport has been, and continues to be, a force for racial progress. What has been less comprehensively explored, however, are the unique difficulties encountered by athletes who have attempted to use sport to promote civil rights activism. Black athletes, and sympathetic white teammates, have faced considerable obstacles as sportsmen who supported the civil rights struggle. Sport has restricted the ability of sportsmen to successfully engage in civil rights activism. In the belief that it has provided an example of racial progress for the rest of society, in fact, sport has resisted the civil rights movement. This article explores the difficulties faced by athletes who attempted to be part of that movement.

Notes

[1] Pope, Patriotic Games, 3: Roberts and Olson, Winning is the Only Thing, 25.

[2] Hartmann, ‘Rethinking the Relationships Between Sport and Race’, 233.

[3] Telephone interview with Harry Edwards, 26 Jan. 2004.

[4] Hoberman, Darwin's Athletes, 8, 28, 30.

[5] Hartmann, ‘Rethinking the Relationships Between Sport and Race’, 230.

[6] Kellner, ‘Sports, Media, Culture and Race’, 462–5.

[7] Hartmann, Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete.

[8] Bass, Not the Triumph But the Struggle.

[9] Telephone interview with Dick Fosbury, 5 Feb. 2004.

[10] Telephone interview with Cleve Livingston, 18 Aug. 2004.

[11] Hartmann, Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete, 84.

[12] Spivey, ‘Black Consciousness and Olympic Protest Movement’, 239–40.

[13] Handwritten Wilkins reply to letter of 15 April 1964, Group 3, Box A3, Sports, NAACP collection, Library of Congress (hereafter NAACP Collection).

[14] NAACP telegram to Governor Wallace, December 1966, Group 4, Box A76, Sports, NAACP Collection.

[15] Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete, 53; ‘The Angry Black Athlete’, Newsweek, 15 July 1968.

[16] Telephone interview with Ralph Boston, 27 July 2004; New York NAACP branch to Wilkins, 12 June 1961, Group 3, Box A3, Sports, NAACP Collection.

[17] Telephone interview with Ralph Boston, 27 July 2004; telephone interview with Phil Shinnick, 23 July 2004.

[18] Guttmen, The Games Must Go On, 244.

[19] Telephone interview with Paul Hoffman, 4 Aug. 2004.

[20] Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete, 95.

[21] Brewster and Brewster, ‘Mexico 1968’.

[22] Vasquez letter to Lord Exeter, 3 April 1968, Brundage Collection Reel 103, Box 179, IOC Archives, Lausanne.

[23] Statement dated 24 July 1968, Rowing File, 1968–72, USOC archives.

[24] Letters dated 5 Sept. 1968, Rowing File, 1968–72, USOC archives; telephone interview with Paul Hoffman, 4 Aug. 2004.

[25] Carlin to Everett, 2 Sept. 1968, Rowing File, 1968–72, USOC archives.

[26]The Harvard Crimson, 6 Nov. 1968; telephone interview with Paul Hoffman, 4 Aug. 2004.

[27] Telephone interview with Hal Connolly, 13 Jan. 2004; telephone interview with Lee Evans, 20 April 2004.

[28] Paul, ‘Setting the 1968 Record Straight’, 15.

[29] Roby to Brundage, 8 Aug. 1968, Box 62, Roby, Douglas F. Folder, 1968 correspondence, Avery Brundage papers, University of Illinois Archives.

[30] Roby to Parker, 5 Nov. 1968, copy of letter in author's possession courtesy of Paul Hoffman (Harvard crew coxswain, 1968).

[31] Zang, Sports Wars; Underwood, ‘The Desperate Coach’; Underwood, ‘Shave off That Thing’.

[32] Wiggins, ‘The Future of College Athletics is at Stake’, 330.

[33] Telephone interview with Bob Wolfe, 17 April 2006; telephone interview with Bob Abright, 13 April 2006.

[34] Students United for Racial Equality – Correspondence, 1965–68, 8.3, series 10, box 17, Marquette University Archives.

[35]‘An Open Letter to Marquette’, 1 May 1968, 8.5, Series 3, Box 4, Student Power – Respond Movement, Marquette University Archives.

[36]The Marquette Tribune, 10 May 1968.

[37] Telephone interview with Joe Thomas, 24 Aug. 2004: ‘Open letter from concerned students at Marquette University’, May 1968, 8.4, Series 6, Box 7, Marquette University Archives.

[38]‘Account by Basketball Coaching Staff’ and ‘Statement of George Thompson’, 17 May 1968, 8.5, Series 3, Box 1, Marquette University Archives.

[39]The Marquette Tribune, 22 May 1968; ‘Letter to Alumni by President Raynor,’ June 1968, Series 3,Box 3, Marquette University Archives.

[40] Telephone interview with Mike Fons, 10 Sept. 2004.

[41] Telephone interview with Willie Amison, 4 Oct. 2004; interview with Bill Bell, 30 Aug. 2004.

[42]New York Times, 11 May 1968.

[43]The University Daily Kansan, 13 May 1968.

[44] Telephone interview with Willie Amison, 4 Oct. 2004; telephone interview with Bill Bell, 30 Aug. 2004.

[45] Telephone interview with T.J. Gaughan, 27 Oct. 2004.

[46] Michener, Sports in America, 157–9; Barrett, ‘Black 14 Williams v. Eaton: A Personal Recollection’.

[47]‘Athletes proposed statement of facts,’ Irene Kettunen Schubert papers, Box 1, Folder 7, American Heritage Centre, University of Wyoming.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Putnam, ‘No Defeats, Loads of Trouble’, 27.

[50]‘K-2 T.V. Editorial’, Irene Kettunen Schubert papers, Box 1, Folder 14, American Heritage Centre, University of Wyoming.

[51]‘Black student Alliance Statement’, Irene Kettunen Schubert papers, Box 1, Folder 8, American Heritage Centre, University of Wyoming.

[52]New York Times, 8 Nov. 1969.

[53] Telephone interview with Joe Williams, 11 July 2004.

[54] Telephone interview with Dr Michael Newton, 16 Aug. 2004; telephone interview with Ken Hustad, 21 March 2004.

[55] Telephone interview with Melvin Hamilton, 19 April 2004; Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete, 26.

[56] Grundy, Learning to Win, 266–70.

[57] Olsen, The Black Athlete.

[58] Plant to Hansen, 2 Aug. 1968, Walter Byers Papers, ‘Racial Matters’ file, NCAA Archives.

[59] Hansen to Owens, 21 Aug. 1968, Walter Byers Papers, ‘Racial Matters’ file, NCAA Archives.

[60] NCAA Executive Council Minutes, 1968, Walter Byers Papers, Council, NCAA file, NCAA Archives.

[61] Hartmann, Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete, 222; Hansen to Plant, 13 Aug. 1968, Walter Byers Papers, ‘Racial Matters’ file, NCAA Archives.

[62]‘Investigation of Black Athlete Problem’, 10 Nov. 1969, Walter Byers Papers, ‘Racial Matters’ file, NCAA Archives.