Civil rights affects

Parker Schwandt

Civil Rights movement effect on sports

Jack Johnson

First African-American boxer

His battles against white opponents, in the ring and outside of it, gave rise to ‘The Great White Hope’ play and movie and he came to be lionized as a barrier breaker.

• record of 69-11-10
• inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) in 1990
• first Black world heavyweight champion

King supported the proposed boycott of Black athletes of the 1968 Olympics. He learned that Black excellence was not enough. Saying, “We’re not saying ‘burn it down.’ We’re just merely saying we don’t care to participate and see how you feel without us as part of the show.” Although by the late 1960s, Black athletes gained more and more opportunities in sports, democracy in society sagged behind. Simply being barrier breakers who represented the race would no longer due. So, they revolted from the system. These athletes pushed King to see that Black athletes could play a dual role in the fight for equality; they could be symbols of equality and powerful weapons to fight inequality. Between 1967 and 1968, for example, Black athletes on at least 35 college campuses protested continued racism in their sport and at their school.

History

Jesse Owens

Won 4 gold medals at 1936 Olympics; challenged racialized notions of Aryan athletic superiority. Owens had proved Hitler’s theories about race differences wrong.

• 100m in 10.30 seconds
• 200m in 20.70 seconds
• Long jump of 8.06 metres

Muhammad Ali

Greatest Boxer of All Time

Ali’s resistance to the draft and friendship with civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael made him perhaps the most visible Black Power activist of his generation. In doing so, Ali bridged the worlds between sports, popular culture, politics and activism in unimaginably profound ways.

• 56-5
• first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions
• successfully defended this title 19 times.

History

King understood the power of sports, and he believed that the Black athlete had a role to play in redeeming the soul of America. He thought successful Black athletes who publicly displaying athletic success and affable personalities, helped the cause by serving as nonviolent symbols of successful integration.