Essay On African American Athletes Rights

During the course of the civil rights movement, through the 1960’s into the 1970’s, African-Americans were making strides to reach their goal of equality. Many African-Americans had something to say, but had no way of voicing their stance. There were many African-American that broke out in protest. Black athletes had a unique public position that allowed for them to share their views. Due to them being in the public’s eye, it allowed for athletes to make their stance against discrimination in a public arena. According to Harry Edwards a sociologist at the University of California, “sports were the only area of campus life where blacks could exercise any political leverage.” The stories of many black athletes and coaches demonstrates that through their actions, and their willingness to stand up against discrimination they were able to integrate and set the foundation for future athletes to be socially accepted in sports. There were two ways athletes were able to increase their participation throughout the Civil Rights Movement. One way was through pressure that the government puts on institutions that refused to integrate their sports. The other way was through individual action from the athletes themselves.Although people tend to …show more content…
Cookie Gilchrist had a driver tell him the same thing as Bell, that he needed to find a colored taxi to drive him to his hotel. But in Gilchrist’s case, after the taxi driver denied him service, he proceeded to flag down Jack Kemp, a white professional football player. Kemp talked to the taxi driver and he took both Kemp and Gilchrist to their hotel. Ernie Ladd, a football player from the chargers, “who was 6’9’’ and weighed over 300 pounds,” had no issue finding a taxi driver to take him to his hotel. Upon entering the city he received other acts of discrimination, such as he was expected to use the facilities designated for African Americans and people refused to wait on