The Ravens is the First NFL Team to Visit Washington D.C.’s Museum Photo Credit: Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens is the first National Football League (NFL) team to step inside Washington D.C.’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is quite apparent that this visit has sparked a new respect and understanding for the significance of African-American culture. The players were silent as they passed the casket of a 14-year-old African-American boy which reminded the visitors of the violent history of the country 60 years ago.
The Ravens’ head coach, John Harbaugh exclaimed that the reason why they are here is because they should be here. He also added that their players should understand the importance of the African-American
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The entire facility covers family, community, literature, music, religion, politics as well as discrimination and slavery. The team was given a deeper insight on how slavery transpired as well as the racial segregation black people used to face daily in the older days.
Afterwards, the Ravens went on to discover how African-Americans made a huge impact on different kinds of sports. According to the museum’s sports curator, Damion Thomas, seeing the football players discover and learn the black community’s history and culture is amazing to see. They were really committed to it.
Raven linebacker Terrell Suggs and his family already previously visited the museum as well as team member Benjamin Watson whose grandfather, Isaac Greggs, was honored at the museum for his achievement as a band director in a south university. Watson encouraged his teammates to learn about the different exhibits and appeared like an assistant tour guide. He previously wrote a book named Under Our Skin, which talks about race in the U.S. and has been known for his vocal opinions to the community.
Watson reiterates the significance of understanding their roots. It is also important for white people to see this too. What he likes about the museum is that everything is already in
Pollard was raised in Rogers Park, a predominantly white neighborhood and was racially criticized/ bullied throughout his childhood. As a youth Pollard would be called the “n” word by other kids in his neighborhood. It wasn’t until Pollard started high school that he wasn’t as mistreated. While attending Lane Tech High, Pollard was a three-time track champion, an outstanding baseball player, and a star football player. Pollard later on received a scholarship to attend Brown University in 1915. Pollard not only led Brown too but was also the very first African American to play in the Rose Bowl in 1915. In 1916 Pollard was unstoppable and the unrestrainable force that led Brown University to back-to-back wins over Yale and Harvard, two all-star football Ivy League schools. For all his achievements, Pollard was honored with a position to become the first African American running back in Walter Camp’s All American Team. A privilege to any other young football player. Yet, that position was taken away after the discovery of Pollard’s love for partying and hatred for school, causing him to no longer be considered academically eligible. Pollard was then employed to coach at Lincoln University. It wasn’t until the Indians coach, Ralph “Fat” Waldsmith, gave Pollard a second chance to his pathway of football greatness. Pollard was offered $200 by the Indians to play in one game against the Tigers and Pollard quickly caught a train to Ohio. After the game against the Tigers, Pollard was signed to play with Akron for the remainder of the season. The Akron Pros joined the American Professional Football Association (APFA), now today known as the NFL, in 1920, making Pollard one of the only two African-American’s in the
In the past few years, the controversy over Native American and other racial sport names or mascots have become an uproar. The main sport teams that are being targeted due to controversial mascots are programs having names dealing with Native Americans. Many teams are well known programs such as the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Redskins. The Redskins are receiving the most heat from racial groups. According to Erik Brady of USA Today “The volatility surrounding such names has amped up in the year since Daniel Snyder, owner of Washington's NFL club, told USA TODAY Sports that he'd never change his team's name: ‘NEVER — you can use caps.’” (3). However, professional teams are not the only teams receiving negative remarks,
African-American players are often negatively affected due to the prevalence of racism in the town. Ivory Christian, for instance, is a born-again Christian with aspirations to be a famous evangelist, but he is unable to pursue his dream due to his commitment to the football team. Because of this, the townspeople have unrealistic expectations of him and assume that he will put all his time and energy into football. Furthermore, there is a greater pressure on him to succeed...
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When exploring African-American history, the most important things to focus on are that because of the times, black people were enslaved and treated poorly. They endured it all and worked hard to rise above the boundaries of slavery and prejudice. However, the most portentous aspect of African-American history is that it's heritage; it's history; and it's over.
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