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Oscar Robertson
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Black Champions: Interview with Oscar Robertson

On coaches' unequal treatment of African American college basketball players.
by Clayton Riley via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on December 13, 1984
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Black Champions: Interview with Curt Flood

On traveling through the Jim Crow south as the sole Black athlete on a baseball team.
via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on November 16, 1984
Althea Gibson with a tennis racket on her lap.
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Black Champions: Interview with Althea Gibson

How being introverted and focused on work helped an athlete navigate a prejudiced sports culture.
via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on October 21, 1984
Illustration of Willie Mayes holding a baseball bat, while men watch from the city.

A Giant of a Man

The legacy of Willie Mays and the Birmingham ballpark where he first made his mark.
by Eric Wills via The American Scholar on October 10, 2024
Silhouette of baseball player swinging bat.

Negro-League Players Don’t Belong in the MLB Record Books

And neither do white players from the segregation era.
by Malcolm Ferguson via The Atlantic on June 13, 2024
Rickwood Field is the oldest ballpark in the United States.

Everyone Should Know About Rickwood Field, the Alabama Park Where Baseball Legends Made History

The sport's greatest figures played ball in the Deep South amid the racism and bigotry that would later make Birmingham the center of the civil rights movement.
by Patrick Sauer via Smithsonian on June 12, 2024
A team photograph of the Homestead Grays.

The Negro Leagues Are Officially Part of MLB History — With the Records to Prove It

The MLB incorporated the statistics of 2,300 Black athletes who played in the segregated Negro Leagues, making the Josh Gibson its new all-time batting leader.
by Rachel Treisman via NPR on May 29, 2024
Picture of the book, "Cracks in the Outfield Wall," by Chris Holaday.

American Legion Baseball, Episode 1

The story of an incident that may have been the first time the issue of race was ever addressed on a baseball field in the Carolinas.
by Chris Holaday via UNC Press Blog on April 25, 2024
Basketball players taking a knee on the court and wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts.
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How the NBA Learned to Embrace Activism

A changing NBA fan base drove the league toward an embrace of Black culture, and social justice politics.
by Adam Criblez via Made By History on April 19, 2024
A portrait of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as the man who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But that narrative is much too narrow.
by Michael Arria, David Naze via Jacobin on May 12, 2023
Boxing great Joe Louis stands in a gymnasium boxing ring as if ready for a match.

How Racist Car Dealers KO’d Joe Louis

A never-before-published tranche of letters reveals the white-collar racism that prevented the world’s most popular athlete from selling Fords.
by Silke-Maria Weineck via The Nation on May 8, 2023
Two horses and jockeys racing on a track.
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There Won’t Be Any Black Jockeys in the Kentucky Derby

Black jockeys dominated 19th-century American horse racing, but racism chased them away and undoing that damage has been slow going.
by Kim Wickens via Made By History on May 5, 2023
March Madness Stadium

A Harsh Reality Lies Beneath the Glory of March Madness

Despite captivating the nation with their athleticism every March, collegiate basktball players remain an exploited labor force for the profit of the NCAA.
by Theresa Runstedtler via CNN on March 18, 2023
January 6, 1947 Harlem Globetrotters ad.

The Harlem Globetrotters and the Social Significance of Sports

The Globetrotters have always been far more than just a comic exhibition team, just as sports have always meant much more than escapism.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on March 15, 2023
Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts shaking hands at Super Bowl 57.
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It Took Until 2023 for Two Black QBs to Start in a Super Bowl. Here’s Why.

Ideas dating back to slavery have minimized opportunities for Black quarterbacks in the NFL.
by Kate Aguilar via Made By History on February 12, 2023
White students, including Jerry Jones, at Arkansas' North Little Rock High blocked the doors of the school Sept. 9, 1957, denying access to six Black students.

Jerry Jones Helped Transform the NFL, Except When It Comes To Race

Decades after the segregation battles of his youth, Jerry Jones has modernized the NFL’s revenue model but hasn’t hired a Black head coach.
by David Maraniss, Sally Jenkins via Washington Post on November 23, 2022
Image of the horse motion picture that is in the Jordan Peele film, "Nope."

What Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ Gets Wrong About ‘The Horse in Motion'

The film takes many liberties with the history of “the first motion picture,” but it illustrates how Black contributions are often marginalized.
by Adam Manno via The Daily Beast on July 25, 2022
Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson’s Last Fight

As baseball celebrates the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s breaking the color line, it’s worth remembering a man at odds with his own myth.
by Dave Zirin via The Nation on April 15, 2022
Curt Flood posed with a baseball bat.

The Ballplayer Who Fought for Free Agency

For his talents on the diamond and his determination off of it, Curt Flood deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
by Peter Dreier via The Nation on August 27, 2021
Tommie Smith on podium receives gold medal with fist raised, holding shoe.
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Rule 50 and Racial Justice

The long history of the international olympic committee's war on athletes' free expression.
by Debbie Sharnak, Yannick Kluch via HNN on August 22, 2021
Muhammad Ali speaking on The Dick Cavett Show.

Muhammad Ali Explains Why He Refused to Fight in Vietnam

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother… for big powerful America.”
by Josh Jones via Open Culture on May 5, 2021
A colorful graphic featuring Curt Flood with a key on his necklace.

Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

His defiance changed baseball and helped assert Black people’s worth in American culture.
by Jemele Hill via The Atlantic on February 10, 2021

Rube Foster Was the Big Man Behind the First Successful Negro Baseball League

100 years ago, it took a combination of salesman and dictator to launch a historic era for black teams.
by John Florio, Ouisie Shapiro via Andscape on February 13, 2020

On the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues, a Look Back at What Was Lost

While segregation was a shameful period in baseball history, the Negro Leagues were a resounding success and an immense source of pride for black America.
by Rob Ruck via The Conversation on February 13, 2020

The Forgotten All-Star Game That Helped Integrate Baseball

The battle for the integration of Major League Baseball started long before Jackie Robinson.
by Stephanie Liscio via Deadspin on July 19, 2019

Athlete-Activists Before and After Kaepernick

Kap wasn't the first, and he won't be the last.
by Louis Moore, Jules Boykoff via Public Books on May 14, 2019
Three Black men in a field wearing Baltimore Black Sox uniforms.

Bill Bruton’s Fight for the Full Integration of Baseball

Louis Moore discusses Bill Bruton and the erasure of his activism towards integration in Major League Baseball.
by Louis Moore via Black Perspectives on May 9, 2019

Jackie Robinson Was Asked to Denounce Paul Robeson. Instead, He Went After Jim Crow.

His testimony before House Un-American Activities Committee was a turning point for the baseball hero.
by Johnny Smith via Andscape on April 15, 2019
Eight black MLBers photographed at a Negro League Alumni All-Star Game in 1952.

After Jackie Robinson Bent Baseball's Color Barrier, Two Journeymen Broke It For Good

Real inclusivity is based on equal access to mediocrity.
by C. Brandon Ogbunu, Ben Odell via Deadspin on April 15, 2019

Like Jackie Robinson, Baseball Should Honor Curt Flood's Sacrifice

Fifty years ago, Flood took a stand and paved the way for free agency.
by William C. Rhoden via Andscape on April 15, 2019
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