The ‘Black Auxiliaries’ in American Memories: Sport, Race and Politics in the Construction of Modern Legacies

At the 1936 Olympics a contingent of African American track and field athletes garnered eight gold, three silver, and two bronze medals to highlight an otherwise disappointing performance by the American team. Dubbed the 'black auxiliaries' by the German press, they were led by the luminous Jesse Owens who through his four-gold medal performance built an enduring global legacy as an Olympic icon. Lost in Owens' long shadow were the other 'black auxiliaries', David Albritton, James LuValle, Ralph Metcalfe, Fritz Pollard, Jr., Mack Robinson, Archie Williams, and John Woodruff. Owens' teammates, however, slowly built their own legacies at the local, regional, and national levels. In many respects they excelled Owens in their post-athletic careers, personifying the admonitions of African American leaders in that era. The ways in which this less famous group of Olympians were forgotten and then remembered illuminates the changing complexities of American relations during the twentieth century

Notes

[1] Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe, 1.

[2] Adolf Hitler's ‘snub’ of Jesse Owens generated intense media coverage in the United States. The US press reported that the German leader pointedly refused to congratulate Owens and the other ‘black auxiliaries’ after their victories. Time magazine alleged that Hitler ‘conspicuously neglected to invite Negro winners up to shake hands with him in his box’: ‘Olympic Games (Cont'd)’, Time, August 1936. For similar reactions see Arthur J. Daley, ‘Owens Captures Olympic Title’, New York Times, 4 Aug. 1936, 1 and 23; John Kieran, ‘Sports of the Times: There He Goes Again!’, New York Times, 5 Aug. 1936, 26; ‘Non-Aryan Victors in Nazi Olympics’, The Literary Digest, 29 Aug. 1936. In fact, the ‘snub’ was more complex than the American press revealed. Hitler participated in public congratulations of winners on the opening day of the track and field competitions, clasping hands in front of the world press corps with German and Finnish athletes who won early events. As rain and darkness descended on the opening day's afternoon session, Hitler left the stadium before African American high jumper Cornelius Johnson won gold. Whether Hitler would have saluted Johnson remains uncertain. After Hitler's opening-day performance, IOC President Henri Baillet-Latour reproached the Führer for his breach of Olympic protocol by engaging in public celebrations with some victors. Baillet-Latour warned Hitler that as host he was not allowed to demonstrate any favouritism through public congratulations of winners. Bowing to the IOC dictum, Hitler congratulated future German winners in private. He directly snubbed neither Owens nor any other Olympic champion in public. Indeed, during the Berlin games Owens denied to a sceptical American press that Hitler had in fact snubbed him. Eventually, as the tale became American folklore, Owens made the alleged snub a standard highlight in his many retellings of his Olympic experiences: Baker, Jesse Owens, 89–91; Guttmann, The Games Must Go On, 78–9; Mandell, The Nazi Olympics, 227–9.

[3] Baker, Jesse Owens; Dyreson, ‘Jesse Owens: Leading Man’.

[4] On the German media's usage of ‘black auxiliaries’ see ‘Topics of the Times: Some Olympic Performers’, New York Times, 14 July 1936, sec. 1, 18; ‘Trials & Tryouts’, Time, 20 July 1936; ‘Olympics: Record-Holders and Champions Too Slow to Qualify’, News-Week, 18 July 1936; ‘Olympic Trials’, The Nation, 18 July 1936.

[5] In addition to Owens, the African American athletes who made the 1936 Olympic team included high jumpers David Albritton and Cornelius Johnson; sprinters Ralph Metcalfe, Matthew ‘Mack’ Robinson, Archie Williams and James LuValle; middle-distance runner John Woodruff; hurdler Frederick Douglass ‘Fritz’ Pollard, Jr.; long jumper John Brooks; women's hurdler Tidye Pickett and women's 400-metre runner Louis Stokes; boxers Arthur Oliver, Willis Johnson, James Atkinson, Howell King and Jack Wilson; and weightlifter John Terry. The African American medallists in track and field were a gold by Cornelius Johnson and a silver by David Albritton in the high jump, a gold by Archie Williams and a bronze by James LuValle in the 400-metres, a gold by John Woodruff in the 800-metres, a bronze by Fritz Pollard, Jr., in the 110-metre hurdles, a silver (behind Owens) by Mack Robinson in the 200 metres and a silver (behind Owens) by Ralph Metcalfe in the 100 metres as well as a gold (with Owens) by Metcalfe in the 4x100 metres relay. In addition, Jack Wilson earned a silver medal in boxing, which his coaches insisted should have been a gold medal but for nefarious judging. American Olympic Committee, Report of the American Olympic Committee, 111–50, 151–3, 173–6, 289–90.

[6] Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe.

[7] The essential biography of Owens is Baker, Jesse Owens. See also Dyreson, ‘Jesse Owens: Leading Man’. Publishers flocked to Owens. He wrote at least five autobiographies: The Jesse Owens Story; Blackthink; I Have Changed; Jesse: A Spiritual Autobiography; Jesse, The Man Who Outran Hitler. He has been the subject of several biographies by large volume trade publishers such as McRae, Heroes without a Country; Schapp, Triumph. Owens has found a place in standard US history texts and in several films and documentaries. For texts see Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision. For films see 100 Years of Olympic Glory; The Journey of the African-American Athlete; ‘To Be Somebody’; The Jesse Owens Story; The Black Athlete; and Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin. He has also made his way into African American literature: Lewis, Freedom Like Sunlight; Hammer, African America. Owens has also been the subject of several juvenile biographies, including McKissack, Jesse Owens; Coffey, Jesse Owens; Adler, A Picture Book of Jesse Owens; Sanford and Green, Jesse Owens; Sabin, Jesse Owens; Kaufman, Jesse Owens.

[8] Beyond Owens, only Metcalfe has been the subject of book-length biography, an obscure monograph in the Ralph Nader Congress Project series: Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe. Metcalfe and the rest of the ‘auxiliaries’ have not been entirely forgotten, as each has his own Wikipedia page, one measure of American ‘collective memory’ in the twenty-first century. Of course, Owens has a more extensive Wikipedia page than any of ‘auxiliaries’. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Williams; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Albritton; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woodruff; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Cooper_Johnson; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_LuValle; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Metcalfe; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Robinson_(athlete); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Pollard,_Jr., all sites accessed 1 March 2010.

[9] ‘Topics of the Times: Some Olympic Performers’, New York Times, 14 July 1936; ‘Trials & Tryouts’, Time, 20 July 1936.

[10] Wiggins, ‘The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin’, 286.

[11] Dyreson, Making the American Team; Dyreson, Crafting Patriotism for Global Domination; Dyreson, ‘Return to the Melting’; Dyreson, ‘Selling American Civilization’; Dyreson, ‘Scripting the American Olympic Story-Telling Formula’; Dyreson, ‘Marketing National Identity’; Dinces, ‘Padres on Mount Olympus’; Welky, ‘Vikings, Mermaids, and Little Brown Men’; White, ‘The Los Angeles Way of Doing Things’.

[12] Williams, ‘Negro Athletes in the Eleventh Olympiad’. Williams devotes the most space, three pages, to Owens, but includes a page or two on all of the other black Olympians, including the boxers, the weightlifters and the women's track athletes, as well as chronicling the participation of athletes of African descent from other nations.

[13] Ashe, A Hard Road to Glory, 88.

[14] Nathan, Saying It's So, 13. For readings of the intersections of memory, sport and race, see Schultz, ‘“Stuff from Which Legends Are Made”’.

[15] Wiggins, ‘The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin’, 290. On the rise of scientific racism and the mythology of ‘athletic genes’ see Wiggins, ‘“Great Speed But Little Stamina”’; Miller, ‘The Anatomy of Scientific Racism’; Dyreson, ‘American Ideas About Race and Olympic Races’; Hoberman, Darwin's Athletes.

[16] Wiggins, ‘The 1936 Olympic Games’, 290.

[17] Ibid., 278–9.

[18] Rhoden, $40 Million Slaves.

[19] Baker, Jesse Owens; Dyreson, ‘Jesse Owens: Leading Man’.

[20] In constructing this prosopography of the ‘black auxiliaries’ we have consulted a wide variety of sources in an effort to trace their lives. Newspaper and magazine stories from the black and white press, including articles on their athletic careers and their obituaries have provided numerous bits and pieces for composite. The Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender and Los Angeles Sentinel have been most helpful from the black press, while the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Washington Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Sports Illustrated and Time have provided useful details from mainstream white perspectives.

Journal articles with information on the ‘black auxiliaries’ include Williams, ‘Negro Athletes in the Tenth Olympiad’; Carter, ‘The Negro in College Athletics’; Allen, ‘Breaking World's Records’; Henderson, ‘The Negro in the Olympic Games’; Williams, ‘Negro Athletes in the Eleventh Olympiad’; Meade, ‘The Negro in Track Athletics’; Bush, ‘The Grandest Olympian’; Wiggins, ‘The 1936 Olympic Games’. For monographs see Henderson, The Negro in Sports; Young, Negro Firsts in Sports; Bontemps, Famous Negro Athletes; Henderson, The Black Athlete; Carlson and Fogarty, Tales of Gold; Wiggins, Glory Bound; Ashe, A Hard Road to Glory; Wiggins and Miller, The Unlevel Playing Field. The following reference works contain bits and pieces: The Black Olympians, 1904–1984; Compton's Gift to the Olympic Games; Page, Black Olympian Medalists; Porter, African-American Sports Greats; Wiggins, African Americans in Sports. On specific members of the ‘auxiliary’, we have consulted a variety of websites from halls of fame, university alma maters and various commemorations and memorials. Specific citations can be found in appropriate sections of the paper.

Other relevant oral histories, government documents, and special websites on individual members include the following:

David Albritton:‘Albritton, David, in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, 1997), available at http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=AD1, accessed 11 Jan. 2010.

James LuValle: Interview with Dr James E. LuValle, interviewed by 1936 Olympic Track & Field, interviewed by George A. Hodak, June 1988, Palo Alto, CA, An Olympian's Oral History Collection, Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles (now the LA84 Foundation), Los Angeles, California; Oral History with James E. LuValle, Founding President of UCLA's Graduate Students Association, interview conducted by Ranford B. Hopkins in 1987; Oral History Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Los Angeles; ‘LuValle Biography’, available at http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/alumni/james-luvalle_biography/, accessed 15 Jan. 2010.

Ralph Metcalfe: The University of Marquette Website, ‘Ralph Metcalfe, The Olympic Years’, available at http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2008/Metcalfe.html, accessed 22 Dec. 2009; ‘Memorial Services held in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Unites States, together with remarks presented in eulogy of Ralph H. Metcalfe’, ‘Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building’, Report of the US House of Representatives, 168, 102nd Congress, 1st Session, 26 July 1991 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1991); Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe; The Metcalfe Report on the Misuse of Police Authority in Chicago; Ralph Harold Metcalfe, ‘A Study of the Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco on Athletic Performance’, M.Ed. thesis, University of Southern California, 1939; ‘Ralph H. Metcalfe’, The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Website, available at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000675, accessed 20 Nov. 2008; ‘Ralph Harold Metcalfe’, The Black Americans in Congress Website, available at http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=62, accessed 10 Nov. 2008.

Fritz Pollard, Jr.: Carroll, Fritz Pollard.

Mack Robinson: ‘The Early Years’, available at http://sportshistory.uoregon.edu/details/show/8; accessed 20 Nov. 2008; ‘Remembering Matthew ‘Mack’ Robinson’, Affinity, available at http://www.affinityonline.org/Departments/ALookBack/MatthewMackRobinson/tabid/179/Default.aspx, accessed 15 March 2010; University of Oregon, available at http://www.uoregon.edu/∼uadvance/awards/descriptions.html#WebfootSociety, accessed 11 Nov.2008.

Archie Williams:Archie F. Williams, ‘The Joy of Flying: Olympic Gold, Air Force Colonel, and Teacher’, an oral history conducted in 1992 by Gabrielle Morris, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; Interview with Archie F. Williams, 1936 Olympic Track & Field, interviewed by George A. Hodak, June 1988, Santa Rosa, CA, An Olympian's Oral History Collection, Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles (now the LA84 Foundation), Los Angeles, California.

John Woodruff: John Woodruff Recognition Video, available at http://pittsburghpanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-track/spec-rel/110207aac.html; http://www.visionaryproject.org/woodruffjohn, accessed 23 Nov. 2008; George Tanber, ‘Woodruff's Forgotten Run to Olympic Glory’, ESPN.com, available at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2780877, accessed 15 Jan. 2009); John Woodruff interview, available at http://www.visionaryproject.org/woodruffjohn, accessed 10 Sept. 2009; http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2780877, accessed 23 July 2009; http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/?p=987, accessed 23 July 2009; Sharon Blake, ‘Woodruff Highlighted in Exhibition at Holocaust Museum’, The Pitt Chronicles, 12 May 2008, available at http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/chronicle5-12-08.pdf, accessed 20 Nov.2008.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Williams, ‘Negro Athletes in the Eleventh Olympiad’, 58–59.

[32] Henderson penned four editions of The Negro in Sports (1939, 1949, 1975, 1979) and two editions of the The Black Athlete (1968, 1978). He also penned a journal article: Henderson, ‘The Negro in the Olympic Games’. For a biography of Henderson, see Wiggins, ‘Edwin Bancroft Henderson, African American Athletes, and the Writing of Sport History’, in Glory Bound, 221–40.

[33] Henderson, ‘The Negro in the Olympic Games’, 43; Henderson, The Negro in Sports, 71.

[34] Henderson, ‘The Negro in the Olympic Games’, 43.

[35] Young, Negro Firsts in Sports; Bontemps, Famous Negro Athletes.

[36] Brawley and Richardson penned chapters on Owens with the ‘black auxiliaries’ swirling about him while Hughes focused on Jackie Robinson while briefly mentioning connections to Mack Robinson and Jesse Owens. Brawley, Negro Builders and Heroes; Hughes, Famous American Negroes; Richardson, Great American Negroes.

[37] Kieran and Daley, The Story of the Olympic Games, 239–51.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games, 238.

[40] Kirby, ‘Report of the Chef de Mission’, in American Olympic Committee, Report of the United States Olympic Committee: Games of the XIVth Olympiad, 247.

[41] Meade, ‘The Negro in Track Athletics’; Jesse Owens, ‘My Great Olympic Prize’, Reader's Digest, October 1960; Lincoln Barnett, ‘The Modern Heroes’, Sports Illustrated, 19 Nov. 1956; ‘The Negro in American Sport’, special issue, Sport, March 1960.

[42] ‘Russia Follows US in Not Dipping the Flag’, New York Times, 26 Aug. 1960; ‘Rousing Acclaim Greets US Team’, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 1960; Oscar Fraley, ‘US, Russia Favored to Grab To Honors’, Times Recorder [Zanesville, OH], 26 Aug. 1960; ‘US Gets Top Ovation at Opening of Olympic Games’, Daily News [Galveston, TX], 26 Aug. 1960; ‘US Flag Erect’, Chicago Tribune, 26 Aug. 1960. Interestingly, the US did not select another African American flag bearer until women's basketball player Dawn Staley carried the Stars and Stripes at Athens in 2004, followed by another African American, track star Lopez Lomong at Beijing in 2008.

[43] This Is Your Life, NBC Television, 27 April 1960.

[44] Tanber, ‘Woodruff's Forgotten Run to Olympic Glory’.

[45] Norrell, The House I Live In; Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty; Tuck, ‘We Ain’t What We Ought to Be’.

[46] David Albritton, 1979 inductee of the Ohio State University Varsity ‘O’ Hall of Fame, available at http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17300&ATCLID=92523; Ralph Metcalfe, 1980 inductee of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, available at http://gshf.org/pdf_files/inductees/track_and_field/ralph_metcalfe.pdf; and a 1972 inductee of the Marquette University ‘M’ Club Hall of Fame, http://www.gomarquette.com/hallfame/marq-hallfame.html; Mack Robinson, a 1995 inductee of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame, available at http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=246730, and inductee of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, http://www.oregonsportshall.org/inductee-members.html; Fritz Pollard, Jr., a 1975 inductee of the University of North Dakota Letterwinners Hall of Fame, available at https://admin.xosn.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=750087; Archie Williams, a 1986 inductee of the University of California Athletic Hall of Fame, available at http://www.calbears.com/trads/cal-halloffame.html, and John Woodruff, a 2009 inductee of the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame, available at http://fayettecountysportshalloffame.com/woodruff.html; and a 1994 inductee of the Penn Relays Wall of Fame, http://news.pennrelaysonline.com/event-history/the-stars-of-the-relays/relays-wall-of-fame/; James LuValle, a 1986 inductee of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame, available at http://www.uclabruins.com/ot/hof-inductees.html. All websites accessed 10 March 2010.

[47] http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/index.asp?mode=alphabetical, accessed 1 April 2010.

[48] http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/alumni/james-luvalle_biography/, accessed 10 March 2010.

[49] Williams, ‘The Joy of Flying’.

[50] Interview with James LuValle; Oral History with James E. LuValle; Williams, ‘The Joy of Flying’; Interview with Archie F. Williams.

[51] John Woodruff interview, http://www.visionaryproject.org/woodruffjohn; David Fleming, ‘Living Legacies’, Sports Illustrated, 20 Feb. 1995; Chuck Finder, ‘70 Years Ago Today, Connellsville Native John Woodruff Sprinted from Last to First to Win Gold at Berlin Olympics’, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4 Aug. 2006; Carlson and Fogarty, Tales of Gold, 177–85.

[52] http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2780877, accessed 23 July 2009.

[53] http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/?p=987, accessed 23 July 2009.

[54] Paul Zeise, ‘Obituary: John Woodruff/Pitt Gold Medalist Ran Against Racism’. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2 Nov. 2007.

[55] Sharon Blake, ‘Woodruff Highlighted in Exhibition at Holocaust Museum’, The Pitt Chronicles, 12 May 2008, available at http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/chronicle5-12-08.pdf, accessed 20 Nov. 2008.

[56] ‘Two Visiting Athletes Are Y House Guests’, Dallas Express, 17 July 1937, 3.

[57] James Ragland, ‘Race is on to Solve a ’37 Math Problem’, Dallas Morning News, 19 Oct. 2006. In a preview of 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Philadelphia Tribune portrayed Woodruff simply as a teammate of ‘the legendary Jesse Owens’. Samuel Davis, ‘Black Athletes Ready for Olympic Glory: They Hope to Follow in Heroes Footsteps’, The Philadelphia Tribune, 7 June 1996.

[58] Finder, ‘70 Years Ago Today, Connellsville Native John Woodruff Sprinted’; Judy Kroeger, ‘Highlights Magazine Showcases Olympian Woodruff’, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 17 Feb. 2008; Angie Kay Dilmore, ‘Stopping for Olympic Gold’, Highlights Magazine, Feb. 2008; Deepak Karamcheti, ‘Pitt's “Greatest Athlete” Honored: NCAA Program Recognizes Olympic Gold Medalist John Woodruff and Others’. The New Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh, 21 Nov. 1998; http://www.visionaryproject.org/woodruffjohn.

[59] Karamcheti, ‘Pitt's “Greatest Athlete” Honored’; Frank Litsky, ‘John Woodruff, An Olympian, Dies at 92’, The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2007.

[60] John Woodruff Recognition Video, available at: http://pittsburghpanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-track/spec-rel/110207aac.html; http://www.visionaryproject.org/woodruffjohn, accessed 23 Nov. 2008.

[61] ‘Los Angeles Fetes Athletes’, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sept. 1936.

[62] Litsky, ‘Mack Robinson, 85, Second to Owens in Berlin’.

[63] Michael Rosenthal, ‘Hometown Hero? Robinson's Brother, Mack, Felt Shunned by Pasadena’, Los Angeles Daily News, 8 April 1997; Lanning, ‘Remembering Matthew “Mack” Robinson’, available at: http://www.affinityonline.org/Departments/ALookBack/Matthew MackRobinson/tabid/179/Default.aspx, accessed 10 Nov. 2009.

[64] ‘Robinson in School’, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 1937.

[65] Robinson so soundly dominated the 100 metres, 200 metres, 1100metre hurdles and long jump that his University of Oregon team did not lose a single dual meet in 1938: ‘The Early Years’.

[66] ‘Mack Robinson, 1914–2000: Ahead of Jackie, Behind Jesse’, Sports Illustrated, 27 March 2000.

[67] ‘The Early Years’.

[68] Bert Mann, ‘From Olympic Silver to Sewer’, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 1980; Gary Libman, ‘Pioneer Olympian Gold Medalist Helped Set Pace for Black Athletes’, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 1984; Shav Glick, ‘For Mack Robinson, Memories of Silver Medal Aren’t Glittering’, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 1984. Ken Wheeler, ‘Another Robinson Legacy’, The Oregonian, 17 May 1997; Rosenthal, ‘Hometown Hero?’

[69] Jack Birkinshaw, ‘9 Pasadena Groups Will Meet on Improving Race Relations’, Los Angeles Times, 3 April 1967; Bert Mann, ‘Problems of Northwest Spark Pasadena Clash’, Los Angeles Times, 15 March 1972; Mary Barber, ‘Mack Robinson: Crusader Against Blight, Crime’, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 1983; Corina Knoll, ‘Pasadena Park Caught between Jackie and Mack Robinson’, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2009; Lanning, ‘Remembering Matthew “Mack” Robinson’.

[70] Carroll, Fritz Pollard.

[71] Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment.

[72] ‘Mack Robinson, 1914–2000’.

[73] Todd Burroughs, ‘Tribute to Jackie: Robinson brothers were Great Track Stars’, The Philadelphia Tribune, 25 April 1997. See also, Dwight Chapin, ‘Mack Robinson: More Than ‘Jackie's Brother’, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 1968; ‘The Other Robinson’, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 1978.

[74] Earl Gustkey, ‘Jesse Owens Loved by All’, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 1984; Randy Harvey, ‘Old Glory Stars in a Parade’, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 1984; Kenny Moore, ‘Hey Russia, It's a Heck of a Party’, Sports Illustrated, 6 Aug. 1984.

[75] ‘Jackie Robinson's Brother: Mack Robinson Dies at 85’, The Los Angeles Sentinel, 22 March 2000.

[76] Bert Mann, ‘Pasadena Petitioned for Memorial to Robinson’, Los Angeles Times, 23 May 1973; Bert Mann, ‘Plan for Memorial Irks Jackie Robinson's Kin’, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 1973; Mary Barber, ‘Jackie Robinson’, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 1984; Mary Barber, ‘Jackie Robinson Statue Is His Brother's Dream’, Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 1984.

[77] Knoll, ‘Pasadena Park Caught between Jackie and Mack Robinson’; Lanning, ‘Remembering Matthew “Mack” Robinson’; Robinson Stadium at Pasadena City College, available at http://www.pasadena.edu/foundation/FundedProjects/stadium.cfm; Mack Robinson Post Office, Pasadena, available at http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5REQ_Matthew_Mack_Robinson_Post_Office__Pasadena_CA; Robinson Memorial in Pasadena, available at http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/landmarks/memorialhome.asp, all accessed 2 April 2010; ‘Jackie Robinson's Brother’; ‘City of Pasadena Honors Jackie and Mack Robinson’, Los Angeles Sentinel, 28 May 1997.

[78] ‘City of Pasadena Honors Jackie and Mack Robinson’.

[79] Matthew ‘Mack’ Robinson Post Office, available at http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5REQ_Matthew_Mack_Robinson_Post_Office__Pasadena_CA,, accessed 10 Dec. 2009.

[80] Robinson found himself in good company as his fellow inductees for the award included famed writer Ken Kesey, Olympic track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman and Olympic marathoner and author Kenny Moore: University of Oregon, WebfootSociety.

[81] Ibid.

[82] Wheeler, ‘Another Robinson Legacy’.

[83] Cromwell and Metcalfe, The Sprint Races.

[84] Martin, ‘Incident at Fernwood’; ‘4 Great Negro Athletes Guide South Side Boys; Jesse Owens Directs Program of 400’, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 1950; ‘Metcalfe Will Address Banquet for Y Champs’, Chicago Tribune, 24 April 1951; Memorial Services held in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Unites States … Ralph Metcalfe.

[85] Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe; Robert Wiedrich, ‘Ald. Metcalfe Is a Man with Lots of Dash; Readily Admits His Tieup to Rep. Dawson’, Chicago Tribune, 26 May 1956; ‘Negro Leaders Protest Police District Shifts’, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 1963; Edward Schreiber, ‘4 Aldermen, School Board Leader Meet; Discuss Grievances of Negro Groups’, Chicago Tribune, 21 Aug. 1963; John Handlet, ‘Metcalfe Takes Control as Zoning Chairman’, Chicago Tribune, 1 April 1965.

[86] Frank Mastro, ‘Metcalfle Gets Boxing Board Post, Report’, Chicago Tribune, 11 March 1949; ‘Rumor Radzienda, Triner, and Metcalfe as Sport Commission’, Chicago Tribune, 12 March 1949; Frank Mastro, ‘No Racketeers in Boxing Here, Says Metcalfe’, Chicago Tribune, 24 May 1952.

[87] ‘Council Urges Fund Group for Pan-Am Games’, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 1957; ‘Pan-Am Games Group to Hear Chicago Bid’, Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 1957; ‘Award Pan-American Games to Chicago; Group Votes 13 to 6 Over Brazil Site 2,000 Athletes to Meet in ′59 Chicago Is Awarded ′59 Pan Games’, Chicago Tribune, 4 Aug. 1957; ‘Chicagoans Out to Land Olympics; Seeks Games of 1964 or ′68’, Chicago Tribune, 27 March 1957; Ralph Metcalfe Reflects on Olympic Legacy, http://www.chicago2016.org/our-plan/news/chicago-news/ralph-metcalfe-jr-reflects-on-an-olympic-legacy.aspx, accessed 23 July 2009.

[88] ‘Youth Corps Will Provide Summer Work for 3,000; Special Program to Operate Only Thru August’, Chicago Tribune, 18 July 1965.

[89] ‘Olympic Bridesmaid’, Sports Illustrated, 24 July 1961.

[90] He was inducted in 1972. See http://www.gomarquette.com/hallfame/marq-hallfame.html, accessed 12 Jan. 2010.

[91] The University of Marquette Website, ‘Ralph Metcalfe, The Olympic Years’, available at: http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2008/Metcalfe.htm, accessed 22 Dec. 2009.

[92] Jackie Loohauis, ‘The Marquette Student and Future Congressman Who Took Gold in 1936’, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 September 1998.

[93] The Ralph Metcalfe Elementary School, 3400 W North Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53208.

[94] The Ralph Metcalfe Elementary School Website, http://www.metcalfe.cps.k12.il.us/, accessed 20 Nov.r 2008; The Chicago Parks District Website, ‘Metcalfe Park’, http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.detail/object_id/05573de4-0773-4f25-a026-52cdb5593fe3.cfm, accessed 20 Nov. 2008.

[95] ‘Cancel Rights Marches; Pact Provides Equal Access to Housing, Loans, It's Great Day for Chicago, Daley Says’, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 1966; David Halvorsen, ‘Aspirations of City's Negroes Revealed; Survey Shows Leaders More Interested’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sept. 1966; Ralph, Northern Protest; Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe.

[96] Two recent studies provide excellent analysis of the controversies and protests surrounding the Mexico City games. Bass, Not the Triumph But the Struggle; Hartmann, Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete.

[97] ‘Negro Athletes Express Olympic Boycott Views; Negroes Tell Views about Boycott Idea’, Chicago Tribune, 25 Nov. 1967; ‘Voice of the People; Negro Athletes’, Chicago Tribune, 30 Nov. 1967.

[98] ‘Name Group to End AAU, NCAA Fight’, Chicago Tribune, 15 Dec. 1965; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Website, ‘Ralph H Metcalfe’.

[99] ‘Ralph H. Metcalfe’, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Website.

[100] Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe, 1.

[101] The Metcalfe Report on the Misuse of Police Authority in Chicago; Cornfield and Baker, Ralph H. Metcalfe.

[102] Michael Kilian, ‘Daley Choices Win Key Tests; Metcalfe Overwhelms Rayner in 1st’, Party Men Win Bids for House Races’, Chicago Tribune, 18 March 1970; Frank Blatchford, ‘Metcalfe Will Start Own Police Review’, Chicago Tribune, 1 June 1972; David Young, ‘Metcalfe Asks Probe of FBI File on Blacks’, Chicago Tribune, 23 March 1974; Barbara Reynolds, ‘Metcalfe Now Blacks’ Man in Middle’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Nov. 1974; James Strong, ‘Labor Backs Daley's Slate – and Metcalfe’, Chicago Tribune 16 Jan. 1976; Eleanor Randolph, ‘Adlai Endorses Metcalfe; Rebuffs Daley's Candidate’, Chicago Tribune, 2 Feb. 1976; Neil Mehler, ‘The Real Winner: Daley; Metcalfe’, Chicago Tribune, 18 March 1976; Robert Davis, ‘Metcalfe Wins Committee Race’, Chicago Tribune, 27 March 1976.

[103] ‘Improving the Police’, Chicago Tribune, 21 May 1972; ‘A Black Speaks Out’, Chicago Tribune, 1 June 1972; ‘The King's Crown Tilts’, Chicago Tribune, 12 July 1972; ‘The Bar and the Police’, Chicago Tribune, 14 Dec. 1972; ‘Wild Talk by Jesse Jackson’, Chicago Tribune, 26 March 1974.

[104] ‘Our Choices for Congress’, Chicago Tribune, 14 Oct. 1976.

[105] ‘Ralph Harold Metcalfe, ‘The Black Americans in Congress Website’.

[106] ‘Ralph Metcalfe Dead’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 1978, ‘Obituaries: Ralph Metcalfe’, New York Times, 6 Nov. 1978.

[107] Memorial Services held in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Unites States ã Î Ralph Metcalfe.

[108] Monroe Anderson, ‘2,000 Mourn Metcalfe at Funeral’, Chicago Tribune, 15 Oct. 1978.

[109] Dorothy Callin, ‘Jesse Owens Recalls a Beloved Teammate’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 1978.

[110] ‘Why Not the Metcalfe Building’, Chicago Tribune, 24 May 1991; Edward T. Hean, ‘Savage Rips House Panel, Chicago Tribune, 22 May 1991; Mitchell Locin, ‘Metcalfe is Likely Name for Building’, Chicago Tribune, 26 July 1991; ‘New US Building Honors Metcalfe, Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 1991; Teresa Wiltz, ‘Scars Haven’t Healed on Metcalfe Building’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 1991; ‘Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building’, Report of the US House of Representatives, 168, 102nd Congress, 1st Session, 26 July 1991.

[111] See the following obituaries: ‘“Corny” Johnson Dies; Negro Olympic Star’, New York Times, 17 Feb. 1946; ‘Johnson, Former Star Athlete, Dies on Ship’, Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 1946; ‘Ralph Metcalfe Dead’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 1978; Dorothy Callin, ‘Jesse Owens Recalls a Beloved Teammate’, Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 1978; Monroe Anderson, ‘2,000 Mourn Metcalfe at Funeral’, Chicago Tribune, 15 Oct. 1978; ‘Obituaries: Ralph Metcalfe’, New York Times, 6 Nov. 1978; Memorial Services held in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Unites States ã ÎRalph Metcalfe; ‘Chemist James Lu Valle Dies at 80’, Stanford University News Service, 16 Feb. 1993; ‘Archie Williams Is Dead at 78; Won a Gold at Berlin Olympics’, New York Times, 26 June 1993; ‘Archie Williams’, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 June 1993; ‘Archie Williams, 1936 Gold Medal Olympian’, San Jose Mercury News, 26 June 1993; ‘Dave Albritton’, New York Times, 16 May 1994, ‘Miscellany; Dave Albritton Buried’, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 1994; ‘Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Pollard, Jr.’, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2003; ‘Passings: Frederick Pollard, Jr.’, Los Angeles Times, 8 March 2003; Frank Litsky, ‘Mack Robinson, 85, Second to Owens in Berlin’, New York Times, 14 March 2000; Shav Glick, ‘Olympian Mack Robinson Dead at 88’, 13 March 2000; ‘Jackie Robinson's Brother: Mack Robinson Dies at 85’, Los Angeles Sentinel, 22 March 2000; ‘Mack Robinson, 1914–2000: Ahead of Jackie, Behind Jesse’, Sports Illustrated, 27 March 2000; Frank Litsky, ‘Obituary: John Woodruff, 92, US Runner in 1936 Berlin Olympics’, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2007; ‘Obituaries; John Woodruff, 92; 1st Black Athlete to Win Gold at 1936 Olympics in Berlin’, Los Angeles Times; 2 Nov. 2007; ‘Connellsville's Olympian John Woodruff Dead at 92’, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 2 Nov. 2007; Paul Zeise, ‘Obituary: John Woodruff/Pitt Gold Medalist Ran Against Racism’. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2 Nov. 2007.

[112] ‘“Corny” Johnson Dies; Negro Olympic Star’, New York Times, 17 Feb. 1946.

[113] See note 111 for a list of their obituaries.

[114] Judy Kroeger, ‘Sapling Marks Spot for Woodruff's Memorial Service’, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 17 Nov. 2007.