I am not a sports fan. I’ve written that so many times it seems
redundant to write it again. No, this is not another
sports-bashing column. Been there, done that. This is a column
about the context of sports, about the reasons why sports has
been so important for African American people.
From a historical perspective, sports for African
Americans was never just about winners, losers, and statistics.
It was also about breaking down barriers, clearing hurdles, and
making a point about African American excellence and dignity
in the face of doubt and persistent racism
I’m not referring to the sports world of in-your-face Barry
Bonds and Charles Barkley, of “show me the money” Michael
Jordan and Juwan Howard, of multi-media moguls Like
Shaquille O’Neal, or of poster children like Magic Johnson.
Neither am I alluding to the Amos ‘n Andy throwbacks
(consummate racial entertainers) like Dennis Rodman. Instead,
I am reflecting on the fact that the baseball season that began
on April 1 is the fiftieth since Jackie Robinson broke the
game’s color barrier in 1947.
They don’t make athletes like Jackie Robinson anymore,
athletes who held their heads high even when rabid racists
took clear aim at them. And they don’t make athletes like Paul
Robeson anymore, a man who truly exemplified the term
scholar-athlete, whose physical prowess was, perhaps,
dwarfed by his artistic and intellectual acumen.
To be sure, Robeson and Robinson were very different
kinds of activists. Robeson was a spokesperson for an array
of progressive causes, all focused on the dignity of working
people. When people asked why he, a celebrated artist who
earned $150,000 per year at the peak of his career, would be a
spokesperson for the poor, he replied that, “It has seemed
strange to some that, having attained some stature and acclaim
as an artist, I should devote so much time and energy to the
problems and struggles to working men and women. To me, of
course, it is not strange at all. I have simply tried never to
forget the soil from which I spring.”
In contrast, Robinson was embraced by some of the same
civil rights organizations that eschewed Robeson’s
progressive vision. But Jackie Robinson was clear
that his athletic victories were partly community
victories, that they belonged to the NAACP and the
Urban League as much as they belonged to him.
Although Robeson was an advocate for the
desegregation of baseball, and could be counted as
one of many responsible for Robinson’s presence on
the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson and Robenson
publicly collided on the issue or Robeson’s
patriotism.
The House Un-American Activities Committee,
alarmed by Robeson’s Paris Peace Conference statement–“It
is inconceivable that American Negroes would fight with those
who have oppressed them for generations against the Soviet
Union which, in a generation, has raised them to a position of
equality”–sought out a range of African Americans to
refute that sentiment.
