The Unlevel Playing Field: A Documentary History of the African American Experience in Sport (Sport and Society)

Wiggins, David K.; Miller, Patrick B.

ISBN 10: 0252072723 / ISBN 13: 9780252072727

Published by University of Illinois Press, 2005

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 0252072723-4-35275431

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Unlevel Playing Field: A Documentary History of the African American Experience in Sport (Sport and Society)
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252072723
• ISBN 13: 9780252072727
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 32 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

The Unlevel Playing Field offers a rich compendium of more than 100 primary sources that chart the intertwining history of African Americans and sport. Introductions and head-notes provided by David K. Wiggins and Patrick B. Miller place each document in context, shaping an unrivaled narrative. 

Readers will find dozens of accounts by Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, A. S. “Doc” Young, Eldredge Cleaver, Nikki Giovanni, John Edgar Wideman, bell hooks, James Baldwin, Roy Wilkins, Henry Louis Gates, Gerald Early, and many others. 

The documents range from discussions of the color line in organized baseball during the Jim Crow era and portraits of turn-of-the-century figures like the champion sprint cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor and boxer Jack Johnson. Writers also look at modern-day issues like the participation of black athletes in the 1968 Olympics, the place of African American women in sport, and examine pioneering figures like Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Althea Gibson, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Venus and Serena Williams.

About the Author

David K. Wiggins is Director of the School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism and professor emeritus of history at George Mason University. He is the author of Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America. Patrick B. Miller teaches history at Northeastern Illinois University and is the editor of The Sporting World of the Modern South.