African American Athletes
Collection of articles highlighting exceptional achievement by African American athletes and the barriers they faced.
ESPN.com: Black History Month 2010
Baseball - including Negro League, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays
Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson - Library of Congress
Traces the history of baseball, and African-American players, from 1860 through 1972.
Negro League Baseball - From 1920 to 1960, the Negro Baseball Leagues were in operation. It did not die out until every Major League team had drafted African-American players.
- Negro League Baseball - Factmonster
- This article is several pages long - don't miss parts of it!
- Negro League Baseball Players Association
- Negro League Baseball.com
- Negro Baseball Leagues (1920-1950) - BlackPast.org
- Brookline twins, 10, reach out to players from segregation-era baseball - Boston Globe
- No League of their own - MLB.com
- About the 3 women who played in the Negro Leagues: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, Toni Stone and Connie Morgan.
Integration of Major League Baseball - It took 12 years, from 1947 to 1959, for all major league teams to integrate.
- Baseball Integration Timeline
- Boston Red Sox and Racism - NPR
- The Boston Red Sox were the last major league baseball team to integrate their roster, in 1959.
- No honor in Red Sox anniversary: Way too late, Boston made "Pumpsie" Green the team's first African-American player. - ESPN
- Rodney pushed for MLB integration - ESPN
Jackie Robinson - The first African-American to play for the major leagues, he went to the Booklyn Dodgers in 1947.
- Official Website of Jackie Robinson
- Jackie Robinson: The Trailblazer - Time Magazine, by Henry Aaron
- Jackie Robinson - The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS)
- Jackie Changed Face of Sports - ESPN
- Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball - NPR
- Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier - History.com
- Jackie Robinson Integrates Baseball - NY Times Upfront
Willie Mays - Not the first African-American baseball player, but as Salon.com points out, "In the mid-'60s, whites weren't ready for the best baseball player to be black, and blacks weren't ready for him to be black like Mays."
- Willie Mays - Academy of Achievement
- When Willie Mays joined the NY Giants in 1951, black players were still a rarity in the major leagues. Before Willie Mays, the typical scout's report on a black player would mention the player's color first, his ability second. When scouts described young Willie Mays, they mentioned his remarkable skills first.
- Willie Mays - Salon.com
- In the mid-'60s, whites weren't ready for the best baseball player to be black, and blacks weren't ready for him to be black like Mays.
- Mays Brought Joy to Baseball - ESPN
Mamie "Peanut" Johnson - one of three women to play in the Negro Leagues.
- Mamie "Peanut" Johnson - Negro League Baseball Players' Association
- Mamie "Peanut" Johnson - National Visionary Leadership Project
Track - including Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph
Jesse Owens - In 1936 Owens won four track and field gold medals the summer Olympics. They were ironically held in Berlin, Germany, where Owens achievements flew in the face of Adolf Hitler's determination to display the superiority of the German "Aryan" race.
Wilma Rudolph - Earned three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, becoming the first woman from the United States to win three golds in one Olympics.
- Ruldoph Ran and The World Went Wild - ESPN article about Wilma Rudolph
- Wilma Rudolph - Women in History
Black Power Salute at 1968 Olympics - Tommie Smith and John Carlos, U.S. track stars, made an unforgettable gesture during their medal ceremony. It remains one of the most famous and controversial moments in Olympic history.
Boxing
Joe Louis - World heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949; widely regarded as the first African American to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States.
- Joe Louis biography - BlackPast.org
Muhammad Ali - One of the world's most respected and adored athletes, he was willing to go out on a limb for his personal beliefs by joining the Nation of Islam and speaking out against the Vietnam War.
- Muhammad Ali Official Website
- He is simply... The Greatest - ESPN
- Muhammad Ali biography - Factmonster
Basketball
Integration of the NBA
- Sweetwater's Tale of NBA Integration to Hit the Silver Screen - NBA.com
- An NBA Timeline of Black History
Charles Cooper - The first African-American to be drafted by an NBA team
- True Trailblazers - NBA history (includes info on Charles Cooper)
- Who was the "Jackie Robinson" of the NBA? (Jim Crow Museum)
- Chuck Cooper Biography
Harlem Globetrotters - African American professional basketball team, organized in 1927. Has long incorporated comic routines into their games, with a greater emphasis beginning in the 1950s when the NBA integrated.
- History of the Harlem Globetrotters - PBS POV
- Harlem Globetrotters - Hoopedia
Other people:
- Althea Gibson (Tennis) - integrated Grand Slam tennis
- Marlin Briscoe (Football) - first black quarterback in the NFL
- Willie O'Ree (Hockey) - first black hockey player in NHL