Cover image for $40 million slaves : the rise, fall, and redemption of the black athlete
$40 million slaves : the rise, fall, and redemption of the black athlete
Title:
$40 million slaves : the rise, fall, and redemption of the black athlete
ISBN:
9780609601204
Edition:
1st ed.
Publication Information:
New York : Crown Publishers, c2006.
Physical Description:
xiii, 286 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Contents:
The race begins : the dilemma of illusion -- The plantation : the dilemma of physical bondage -- The jockey syndrome : the dilemma of exclusion -- The Negro leagues : the dilemma of myopia -- Integration : the dilemma of inclusion without power -- Style : the dilemma of appropriation -- The conveyor belt : the dilemma of alienation -- The river Jordan : the dilemma of neutrality -- Ain't I a woman? : the dilemma of the double burden -- The $40 million slave : the dilemma of wealth without control -- The one who got away? : the dilemma of ownership.
Summary:
A narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings and at the first Kentucky Derby to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays. Rhoden argues that black athletes “evolution” has merely been a journey from literal plantations - where sports were introduced as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings - to today's figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. Weaving in his own experiences growing up on Chicago's South Side, playing college football for an all-black university, and his decades as a sportswriter, Rhoden contends that black athletes exercise of true power is as limited today as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The primary difference is, today's shackles are often of their own making.
Holds: