Departments

;

Sports History

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    5/25/2021

    George Floyd Changed The World of Athlete Activism

    by Carl Suddler

    The protests over George Floyd's murder involved Black athletes at a time when athletes are highly visible and broke with a decades-long tendency to steer clear of controversy.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    3/23/2021

    Justice for the Negro Leagues Will Mean More Than Just Stats

    Major League Baseball will incorporate player records from various Negro League competitions in its official statistics. Black players denied the chance to play in the segregated Major Leagues will now be listed among the official all-time greats, but will this move actually raise awareness of the political and social forces that kept the game segregated?

  • SOURCE: Public Books
    2/24/2021

    What Counts, These Days, In Baseball?

    by David Henkin

    A cultural historian considers recent baseball controversies in light of new books on the sport, and concludes that ideas of fair competition have much more to do with our social context than fans acknowledge. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    10/20/2020

    Baseball’s Race Problem

    by Gene Seymour

    Following comedian Chris Rock's observations, Gene Seymour argues that baseball is out of step with a multicultural America and ruled by traditions and unwritten rules that limit its appeal outside of White America. 

  • SOURCE: Black Perspectives
    10/2/2020

    Remembering Wilma Rudolph, the “Queen of the Olympics”

    by Scott N. Brooks and Aram Goudsouzian

    "Maybe most important, Rudolph was a real Black woman, not a stereotype. The Olympics lent her a special platform at a unique moment in American history, and Rudolph capitalized upon it with grace."

  • SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
    8/12/2020

    As College Football Grapples with the Coronavirus, it also Confronts its Racist History

    by Bennett Parten

    It's no coincidence that the south is the heartland of college football. The region first embraced the game as an expression of southern honor culture. While southern colleges were slow to adopt integrated rosters, today's Southeastern Conference teams rely heavily on the unpaid labor of Black players. 

  • SOURCE: WTOP
    7/13/2020

    Where Did The Term ‘Redskins’ Come From?

    Monday’s announcement that the D.C. region’s football team would be abandoning the Redskins brand marks the end of a decadeslong push to shift the team away from the historically racist and oppressive term.

  • SOURCE: Smithsonian
    6/24/2020

    A Brief History of Anti-Fascism

    by James Stout

    Today's anti-fascism isn’t about waving flags at football matches; it's about fighting, through direct action, racists and genocidaires wherever they can be found. The author discusses the history of the movement.

  • SOURCE: Boston Globe
    6/23/2020

    Cancel the Fall College Football Season

    by Victoria L. Jackson

    For too long, instead of facilitating the intellectual advancement and economic empowerment of young Black men, college sports have helped make American universities another institution perpetuating the undervaluing of Black lives.