The Revolt of the Black Athlete hit sport and society like an Ali combination. This Fiftieth Anniversary edition of Harry Edwards’s classic of activist scholarship arrives even as a new generation engages with the issues he explored. Edwards’s new introduction and afterword revisit the revolts by athletes like Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. At the same time, he engages with the struggles of a present still rife with racism, double-standards, and economic injustice. Again relating the rebellion of black athletes to a larger spirit of revolt among black citizens, Edwards moves his story forward to our era of protests, boycotts, and the dramatic politicization of athletes by Black Lives Matter. Incisive yet ultimately hopeful, The Revolt of the Black Athlete is the still-essential study of the conflicts at the interface of sport, race, and society.|
Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
Dedication: In Memory of Muhammad Ali, 1942 - 2016
Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition
Foreword Samuel J. Skinner, Jr.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 The Emergence of the Black Athlete
2 Sports and the Mass Media
3 Mounting the Revolt
4 Feeding the Flame
5 Mexico City, 1968
6 The Future Direction of the Revolt
Epilogue
Appendices
A Olympic Project for Human Rights
B The Revolt on the Campus
C The Black Record-holders
D 1968 National Black Power Conference Statement
E Information Booklet Excerpts
Selected Bibliography
Afterword to the 50th Anniversary Edition
Index
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A useful addition to any syllabus for students of American politics or of journalism and in particular sports journalism.
- Irish Independent
A must read for all scholars, activists, athletes, and sport enthusiasts… . Edwards commandingly expresses how the collective voices and unified actions of Black athletes can evoke institutional change. The Revolt of the Black Athlete uncovers the axiom by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that, ‘a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ even at institutions of higher education.
- Billy D. Hawkins, author of The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, and Predominantly White NCAA Institutions
When whites respond to black protests with anger and resentment, unable to see the experiences of those who don’t enjoy white privilege, that indicates that we have a lot of work yet to do. The re-printing of The Revolt of the Black Athlete comes at a perfect time to help us do that work and Dr. Edwards gives us an amazing example of someone who has spent his life not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.
- Theresa Walton-Fisette, President of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
|Harry Edwards is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the architect of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and his work has focused on the experiences of African-American athletes. His other books include The Struggle that Must Be: An Autobiography.