Race Relations In Sports

Sports have served as a platform on which the subject of race has been highlighted. Sports have unfailingly been considered the microcosm of society. This is because the playing fields have revealed the dominant culture’s attitudes and beliefs that people held about race relations throughout history in the United States. Many racial barriers were broken in the world of sports long before they were crossed in the realm of mainstream society as a whole. From Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball during the year of 1947 to Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists clad in black gloves during the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, sports have started conversations about race in the United States that have undeniably changed the course of race relations in the United States.

To this day, Jackie Robinson is honored by Major League Baseball with his own day commemorating the day he played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Tommie Smith and John Carlos are also remembered with a statue of their historical salute displayed at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. Sports have

In essence, baseball resembled American society at the time. African Americans were not allowed to play in any recognized major and minor leagues of Organized Baseball from 1903 – 1947. This all changed when Jackie Robinson came on the scene and debuted as the first African American in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson in 1947 in what was call a “noble experiment” and effectively brought the issue race on the forefront of American culture nearly 20 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Baseball has been a sport that from its origin has been able to transcend the race issues, but not without its own share of