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Title:
Not the triumph but the struggle : the 1968 Olympics and the making of the Black athlete / Amy Bass.
Author:
Bass, Amy.
Publication Information:
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, ©2002.
Call Number:
GV722 1968 .B38 2002
Abstract:
"Jesse Owens. Muhammad Ali. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. All are iconic black athletes, as are Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the African American track and field medalists who raised black-gloved fists on the victory dais at the Mexico City Olympics and brought the roiling American racial politics of the late 1960s to a worldwide television audience. But few of those viewers fully realized what had led to this demonstration - events that included the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., uprisings in American cities, student protests around the world, the rise of the Black Power movement, and decolonization and apartheid in Africa." "In this far-reaching account, Amy Bass offers nothing less than a history of the black athlete. Beginning with the racial eugenics discussions of the early twentieth century and their continuing reverberations in popular perceptions of black physical abilities, Bass explores ongoing African American attempts to challenge these stereotypes. Although Tommie Smith and John Carlos were reviled by Olympic officials for their demonstration, Bass traces how their protest has come to be the defining image of the 1968 Games, with lingering effects in the sports world and on American popular culture generally."--Jacket.
ISBN:
9780816639441

9780816639458
Series:
Critical American studies series

Critical American studies series.
Physical Description:
xxi, 438 pages ; 23 cm.
Contents:
The race between politics and sport -- What is this "black" in Black athlete? -- An Olympic challenge : preparing for the "problem games" -- The power of protest and boycott : the New York Athletic Club and the question of the South African springboks -- Tribulations and the trials : Black consciousness and the collective body -- "That's my flag" -- Whose broad stripes and bright stars?
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