Essay On The Impact Of Sports On African American Sports

Throughout history, racism and racial segregation have played a role in our society and have made their way into sports. Black athletes have been regarded as naturally talented and used as a form of entertainment. This idea can be traced back to the era of slavery, when plantation masters occasionally put their strongest and most valiant slave against a slave from a neighboring plantation in boxing or wrestling matches (Adams). Slaves were rarely given the opportunity to participate in individual events without the consent or supervision of the slave owners (Bladdingame). During this era slaves utilized sports has a way to release built up emotions and frustrations. Sports also provided a physical escape from the realities of their oppressed

These teams would participate in traditionally unorganized games, otherwise known as barnstorming. In 1911, Andrew “Rube” Foster—a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants partnered with John Schorling, son-in-law of Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, to form the Chicago American Giants. Andrew became frustrated with the fact that, while black baseball players drew crowds during the 1910s, their teams’ gate receipts were tightly controlled by white booking agents. The agents dictated when and where black teams could play, and they subsequently passed little of the games’ attendance revenues on to team owners (Kelly). In 1920 this frustration lead Andrew to construct a meeting in Kansas City, Mo. Andrew and a few other Midwestern team owners joined to form the Negro National League. Soon after the Eastern and Southern states followed suit and created leagues of their own, leading African American players began to play across the U.S and Canada (“The Negro League History”). Although African Americans began making their presence known through baseball, their injustices and inequality in American society remained unresolved and transcend into modern day struggles. The sport of baseball illustrates how racial discrimination, both during periods of segregation and integration, resulted in significant