Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University

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we are going. But most important, it is the story of blacks and of a few courageous whites working together to bring about greater dignity and justice in one segment of life on this earth. And ultimately, this is what the revolt of the black athlete is really about Dignity, Justice, and Life. H. E. Preface to the Paperback Edition • xxiv Preface It's beyond me why these people would allow themselves to be misled by fanatics like Harry Edwards and H. Rap Brown. These athletes are seen by millions of people on nation-wide and world-wide television, they have firststring-starting assignments at white schools, and they are invited to all the big athletic events. Why our Niggers right here at the <strong>University</strong> have never had it so good. T his statement was made by the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at one of America's major universities, later to be "white-listed" by the Olympic Committee for Human Rights during the Spring, 1968, track and field season. He was speaking to the sports editor of one of America's leading weekly news magazines. His remarks are typical of the sentiment of many of the athletic xxv
administrations that determine policy in the world of intercollegiate, amateur, and professional athletics in America. Equally typical was the response of the sports editor. He merely shook his head, indicating that he, too, could not understand such ingratitude, and then went on about the business of obtaining a publishable story for next week's issue. All too often too many of these self-proclaimed guardians of the morals and ethics of the sports world lend tacit approval to such racially corrupt and hypocritical attitudes, thus further degrading and violating the basic human dignity and intelligence of black athletes. Recreation and athletics have traditionally been billed as essentially therapeutic measures-measures that cure faulty or deteriorating character, that weaken prejudice, and that bind men of all races and nationalities closer together. The evidence does not support the theory. Athletic and recreational centers set up in high-crime or delinquency areas have become merely convenient meeting places for criminals and delinquents. 1 Recreational and athletic activities, far from inhibiting crime, actually have spawned it in both the amateur and professional areas. As for eliminating prejudice, whites may grudgingly admit a black man's prowess as an athlete, but will not acknowledge his equality as a human being. In athletics, where the stakes are position, prestige, and money, where intense competition prevails and a loser is anathema, a white racist does not change his attitude toward blacks; he merely alters his inclination to abuse him or discriminate against him overtly. Recreational patterns in America widen and perpetuate racial separation. Recreation is exclusive, compounded of all sorts of considerations, not the least of which are racial and economic. There is, therefore, usually little opportunity for recreation to narrow the gap between white and black Americans. Moreover, Preface • xxvi there is absolutely nothing inherent in recreation that would change attitudes. Recreation simply refreshes the mind and body and gives old attitudes a new start and a fresh impetus. At an athletic event, by no means are all the bigots and racists sitting in the stands. They also are on the field of play. The roots of the revolt of the black athlete spring from the same seed that produced the sit-ins, the freedom rides, and the rebellions in Watts, Detroit, and Newark. The athletic revolt springs from a disgust and dissatisfaction with the same racist germ that infected the warped minds responsible for the bomb murders of four black girls as they prayed in a Birmingham, Albama, church and that conceived and carried out the murders of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Medgar Evers, among a multitude of others. The revolt of the black athlete arises also from his new awareness of his responsibilities in an increasingly more desperate, violent, and unstable America. He is for the first time reacting in a human and masculine fashion to the disparities between the heady artificial world of newspaper clippings, photographers, and screaming spectators and the real world of degradation, humiliation, and horror that confronts the overwhelming majority of Afro-Americans. An even more immediate call to arms for many black athletes has been their realization that once their athletic abilities are impaired by age or injury, only the ghetto beckons and they are doomed once again to that faceless, hopeless, ignominious existence they had supposedly forever left behind them. At the end of their athletic career, black athletes do not become congressmen, as did Bob Mathias, the white former Olympic decathlon champion, or Wilmer Mizell, ex-Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher. Neither does the black athlete cash in on the thousands of dollars to be had from endorsements, either during his professional career or Preface • xxvii
Page 2 and 3: The Revolt of the Black Athlete y N
Page 5 and 6: ... and to Kenneth Noel, who was a
Page 7: monster, a mere opportunist. He had
Page 10 and 11: left to play in the game, 10 black
Page 12 and 13: professional baseball as a result o
Page 16: after he retires. And all his clipp
Page 53 and 54: 4 Feeding the Flame Confrontation o
Page 55 and 56: for five bucks?" I asked the shot-t
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composed of active and former black
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Appendix A Olympic Project for Huma
Page 89 and 90:
Flanked by athletes who were suppor
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Bob Beamon (center) and Ralph Bosto
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Vince Matthews, member of the recor
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Two "saints" of the black athletes'
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Appendix B The Revolt on the Campus
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University of Southern California "
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General World Track and Field Recor
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Olympic Committee for Human Rights
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Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University

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