Includes biographical sketches of Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Muhammed Ali and Michael JordanExamines the intersection of race and sports as well as the rise of the sports figure as endorsement franchiseIncludes 35 photographs

Patrick B. Miller is Professor of History at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. David K. Wiggins is Professor of Sport History at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

I. Sport and Community in the Era of Jim Crow 1. Sport and Black Pittsburgh, 1900-1930, Rob Ruck 2. Black Entrepreneurship in the National Pastime: The Rise of Semiprofessional Baseball in Black Chicago, 1890-1915, Michael Lomax 3. Year of the Comet: Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, July 4, 1910, Randy Roberts 4. A General Understanding: Organized Baseball and Black Professional Baseball, 1900-1930, Neil Lanctot 5. We Were Ladies, We Just Played Basketball Like Boys: African American Womanhood and Competitive Basketball at Bennett College, 1928-42, Rita Liberti 6. A Special Type of Discipline: Manhood and Community in African American Institutions, 1923-57, Pamela Grundy II. The Ordeal of Desegregation 7. Joe Louis: American Folk Hero, William H. Wiggins 8. End Jim Crow in Sports: The Leonard Bates Controversy and Protest at New York University, 1940-1941, Donald Spivey 9. Jackie Robinson: A Lone Negro in Major League Baseball, Jules Tygiel 10. More Than a Game: The Political Meaning of High School Basketball in Indianapolis, Richard B. Pierce 11. Cinderellas of Sport: Black Women in Track and Field, Susan Cahn 12. Jim Crow in the Gymnasium: The Integration of College Basketball in the American South, Charles H. Martin 13. Civil Rights on the Gridiron: The Kennedy Administration and the Desegregation of the Washington Redskins, Thomas G. Smith III. Images of the Black Athlete and the Racial Politics of Sport 14. Edwin Bancroft Henderson, African American Athletes, and the Writing of Sport History, David K. Wiggin 15. The Greatest: Muhammad Ali's Confounding Character, David W. Zang 16. The Sports Spectacle, Michael Jordan, and Nike: The Paradoxes of Corporate Sport, Douglas Kellner 17. The Anatomy of Scientific Racism: Racialist Responses to Black Athletic Achievement, Patrick B. Miller 18. Crisis of Black Athletes at the Outset of the 21st Century, Harry Edwards Further Reading Contributors