Civil Rights in Sports

The Civil Rights Era impacted the realm of sports in a great and powerful way. Throughout the mid 1900s, many minority athletes emerged through all odds and began to integrate themselves in the white dominated athletic business. These athletes endured constant hardships in order to achieve their goals and dreams; facing much racism, segregation, and violence. Minorities across the country began to look up to these sportsmen and realized that anybody could attain greatness despite the social troubles of the time. Stories depicting the struggles of minority athletes soon arose and grew popular among different cultures. These true accounts passed from generation to generation, each admiring the courage and bravery of athletes and how important they became in obtaining an equal society. Producers and directors soon found a way to revolutionize the film industry by retelling the racial discrimination that minority athletes faced. Remember the Titans, The Perfect Game, 42, and The Express are all examples of how minority athletes overcame racial adversities in order to obtain the championship. These Hollywood movies contain many inaccuracies that draw away from the true impact minority athletes had during the Civil Right Era. Although these films do depict the racial components of the time, they do not depict the accurate occurrences of the stories they try to recreate.
The Civil Rights Era became a time in American history when people began to reach for racial equality. The main aim of the movement had been to end racial segregation, exploitation, and violence toward minorities in the United States. Prior to the legislation that Congress passed; minorities faced much discrimination in all aspects of their lives. Lynchings and hanging...

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... because of his skin color. He overcame these obstacles which eventually led him to become the first African-American professional basketball player. Other examples include the sport legends of Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson. All of which endured physical and emotional hardships like racial taunts from fans and being unable to stay in certain hotels or eat in many restaurants on the road. Racial equality slowly began to emerge in the mid nineteen hundreds. Legislation passed various acts: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Fair Housing Act of 1968, which helped ease racial integration of minority groups into white society and provided an equal environment . Stories soon arose of the struggles that minority athletes faced and how they rose to the top, becoming some of the greatest sport legends the United States has to offer.