The Harlem Renaissance is known as a time when African American writers, performers, and musicians dominated American culture. During this time period many african american athletes were also introduced and being recognized by society. Before the Harlem Renaissance african americans were often not allowed to play sports with whites and had separate sports leagues to play in for blacks.This was the case for both team and individual sports like track and field, baseball, basketball, tennis and boxing. This was the case because many people still believed that black people were inferior to white people in many things including sports and should be separated. These are some of the athletes that were prominent during the Harlem Renaissance.
Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete and four time olympic gold medalist in the 1936 games in Berlin. The events he won gold in are the 100-meter dash, long jump, 200-meter dash and 400-meter relay. Some of the world records he set are running the 100-meter dash in 10.3 seconds, jumping 26 feet in long jump, doing the 200-meter dash in 20.7 seconds and the relay in 39.8 seconds.
Another track and field athlete was Wilma Rudolph. Wilma rudolph was an American
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The athletes previously shown paved the way for more and more African american athletes in the major sports leagues, In today 's sports african americans are some of the best in their respective sports some examples of this are Lebron James in basketball, Serena Williams in tennis. Usain Bolt in track and field, tiger woods in golf, Simone Biles in Gymnastics, pele in soccer,and Muhammed Ali in Boxing. Because of the harlem renaissance athletes proving african americans deserve to participate in the major sports leagues just as much as anyone else. Many more african americans now have the ability to participate at the highest levels of their respective Sports. Thank you for