Black fists and fool's gold: The 1960s black athletic revolt reconsidered
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the historical, racial, athletic, and social contexts that defined track and field in 1960s America. It is a story about the continuity of protest and civil rights in that sport. My thesis asserts that black athletes in the 1960s battled racial discrimination, debated the role of protest, and extended a long tradition of black activism that tested the limits of American participatory democracy. I divide the dissertation into three broad sections and a total of 11 chapters. In section one I argue black athletes used competition as a protest mechanism that confirmed their humanity, reasserted racial pride, and defined citizenship. In section two the scene shifts from national to a local context at San Jose State. By the late 1960s, campus protests at San Jose State became the first instance when collegiate black athletes successfully led a resistance movement in sport and society. In doing so they became an important component of the broader student and black freedom movement of the era, and added activism as an addendum to competition as the sole avenue of protest that tested the limits of American participatory democracy. Section three shifts the scene back to national and international contexts. As did participants in the 1960s black freedom movement, black athletes also grappled with the merits of Black Power. For athletes and non-athletes, debates on the merits of Black Power in sport and its relation to human rights and American participatory democracy engulfed the nation. Also similar to participants in the 1960s black freedom movement, black athletes, spectators, administrators, and politicians were not monolithic in their interpretations of Black Power and activism as protest mechanisms in sport. What culminated in 1968 was the total engagement of American society on debates related to sport, nation, gender, citizenship, and ideology.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Bynum, Purdue University.
Subject Area
African American Studies|Black history|American history
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