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FORTY MILLION

DOLLAR VES The

Rise, Fall,

and Redemption

of the Black Athlete

WILLIAM

C.

RHODEN

$23.95

(CANADA:

From Ali

Jackie Robinson to

$31.95)

Muhammad

and Arthur Ashe, African American

athletes have

been

at the center

of mod-

ern culture, their on-the-field heroics

admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But all

their

money, fame, and achievement, says

for

New

York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, black athletes

true

find themselves

still

power

on the periphery of

in the multibillion-dollar industry their

talent built.

Provocative and controversial, Rhoden's

$40

Million Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century

boxing rings and

at the first

Kentucky Derby

to the

history-making accomplishments of notable figures

such

as Jesse

Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie

Mays. Rhoden makes the cogent argument that black athletes' "evolution" has merely been a journey

from

literal

duced

plantations

—where

sports were intro-

as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings

to todays figurative ones, in the

form of collegiate

and professional sports programs. Weaving

own

in his

experiences growing up on Chicago's South

Side, playing college football for an all-black university,

and

his

decades

contends that black as limited

today

as

as a sportswriter,

athletes' exercise

when

Rhoden

of true power

is

masters forced their slaves

The primary difference is, today's own making. Every advance made by black athletes, Rhoden

to race

and

fight.

shackles are oft:en of their

explains, has been

met with

a knee-jerk backlash

one example being Major League tion of the sport,

—

Baseball's integra-

which stripped the black-controlled

Negro League of its

talent

and

left it

to founder.

He

details the

"conveyor belt" that brings kids from

inner

and small towns

where

cities

to big-time programs,

they're cut off from their roots

and exploited

by team owners, sports agents, and the media. also sets his sights

on

athletes like

(continued on back flap)

He

Michael Jordan,

^

Mfn

l^'^

No:

^

/I

?f

f^.

fff^

/

f

Of this

^,

iJLc. *"..

"""'^U^;t^

$40

MILLION SLAVES

$40 MILLION

SLAVES The

Rise, Fall,

and Redemption

of the Black Athlete

WILLIAM

RHODEN

C.

9 Crown Publishers

\

New

York

The poem on page xv

Copyright

is

by William C. Rhoden.

© 2006 by William

Rhoden

C.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by

Crown

Publishers, an imprint of the

Random

Publishing Group, a division of

House,

Inc.,

Crown

New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

Crown

is

a

Crown colophon

trademark and the

of Random House,

is

a registered

trademark

Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rhoden, William C. $40 million

slaves

:

the

rise, fall,

and redemption of the black athlete

William Rhoden. p.

—

/

1st ed.

cm.

Includes bibhographical references and index. 1

— — United

African American athletes

.

3.

Discrimination in sports

athletes

—

History. 2. Sports

Social conditions.

I.

Title:

States

—

— United

States

History. 4. African

Forty million dollar

—

History.

American

slaves. II. Title.

GV583R46 2006 2005034952

796'.08996073-dc22

ISBN-13: 978-0-609-60120-4

ISBN-10: 0-609-60120-2

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Leonard Henderson

10

98765 432 First

Edition

1

k

To Sharon and Raisa: the other half of my heartbeat

My guiding Ughts, Bill and Janet Rhoden My pillars of support, George and Mary Lopez

Contents

Prologue

tx

Introduction

1

Chapter

1

The Race

Begins:

The Dilemma of Illusion Chapter 2

The

Plantation:

The Dilemma of Physical Bondage Chapter 3

The Negro

The Conveyor

Ain't

I

a

The $40

219

Million Slave:

The Dilemma of Wealth Without Control Chapter 11

197

Woman?

The Dilemma of the Double Burden Chapter 10

171

The River Jordan: The Dilemma of Neutrality

Chapter 9

147

Belt:

The Dilemma ofAlienation Chapter 8

121

Style:

The Dilemma ofAppropriation Chapter 7

99

Integration:

The Dilemma of Inclusion Without Power Chapter 6

63

Leagues:

The Dilemma of Myopia Chapter 5

35

The Jockey Syndrome: The Dilemma of Exclusion

Chapter 4

U

231

The One Who Got Away? The Dilemma of Ownership

247

uiii

CONTENTS

Epilogue

263

Notes

271

Bibliography

211

Acknowledgments Index

219 281

Prologue

The title of this book comes

from

spectator during a professional basketball

comment was aimed

remark made by

a

game

in

Los Angeles.

Larry Johnson, then a player with the

at

York Knicks.The previous season, Johnson had referred Knicks teammates

That night

as

white

a

to

The

New

some of his

"rebel slaves," unleashing a storm of controversy.

team headed toward the bench dur-

in Los Angeles, as his

ing a time-out, a heckler yelled out: "Johnson, you're nothing but a

$40 million

When

I

slave."

began writing

this

mind was

book

initially

came

biblical

book of Exodus, which

to

from bondage

in

in the spring

comparison: Virtually from the

from Africa to the

title

Lost Tribe Wandering, an idea inspired tells

that

by the

the story of the Israelites' flight

Egypt to the Promised Land.

to-face with Christianity,

of 1997, the

moment

It

seemed

enslaved Africans

like

an apt

came

face-

Exodus became emblematic of our journey

New World,

though with

a paradoxical twist.

For

generations of European immigrants, the United States was the

Promised Land, the land of milk and honey. For enslaved African Americans, America became that Egypt from the book of Exodus.

The

quest to find the Promised

many

a

Land

in this

New

Egypt has been for

never-ending journey through a succession of ostensible

Promised Lands, none of which has turned out to be the

final desti-

nation.This has certainly been the case for black athletes, who've jour-

neyed from slavery to segregation to an exploitative integrated sports world, never finding a true Promised Land.

The image of a ness, sustained

remained

my

tribe

by the

of athletes crossing a faith that there

inspiration as

I

wrote

tx

this

is

dusty, desolate wilder-

an ultimate destination,

book: Black athletes appeared

PROLOGUE

X

to

me

to be a multifaceted tribe

whose march

across time

and against

tremendous odds put an indeHble stamp on the culture and psyche of this country.

Eight years

How

did the

book s

sionistic Lost Tribe

new

Lost Tribe Wandering has

later,

make such

title

become $40

a jarring leap

much more

Wandering to a

tide cuts to the chase in describing the

Million Slaves.

from the impres-

provocative one? This

white wealth-black labor*

condition that has merely changed forms from generation to generation.

Even

American

in 2005, with African

called majority in professional football

athletes

making up

and basketball and

a so-

a significant

minority in Major League Baseball, access to power and control has

been choked

off.

The power

relationship that

had been established on

the plantation has not changed, even if the circumstances around it

have.

The

use of the language of slavery in any variation always strikes an

exposed nerve in the United

States, the result

of

and

guilt, denial,

deep-rooted anger and frustration over the inescapable

reality that

our

country's foundations are buried in the fields of slave plantations.

So the inevitable question and "$40 miUion"

in the

will

be asked:

How can you use "slavery"

same breath? Even Bob Johnson, the owner

of the Charlotte Bobcats and an African American, raised the question during an interview for After sure

told

I

this

Johnson the

making $12 million

plantation. If it

is, I

know

book. title

of

my

a year playing

a

whole

lot

book, he

said,

"I'm not quite

82 basketball games

of folks

who want

is

to be

called a

on

that

plantation."

Johnson added: "I'm not sure the plantation-to-plantation metaphor works

.

money

.

.

for

because you have to explain

doing

Later, though,

basically

how

what people do

a

guy

gets paid that

much

in the street every day."

during the same interview, Johnson conceded

^See Claude Anderson's

book White

Wealth, Black Labor.

that.

PROLOGUE from an

xi

athlete's perspective, professional sports

might be

a plantation

of sorts.

"Do that

all

the players see themselves

them

is

To the general

ful

who

exercises

power over

white, and they feel or believe that the owners are taking

value out of them than

what the owners

far

from the surface

than their white peers

David

—

for the

money

who

Falk, the sports attorney

Promised Land.

of the discussion; the inference

that they should

is

more

are putting in."

public, athletes have achieved the

their salaries are always a part

never

think they do, in

I

coaches work for the white owners, and the indus-

run by white commissioners. Anyone

is

And

a plantation?

of the owners are white. That creates the dynamic: The own-

ers are white, the

try

on

be grateful

— more

grate-

they make.

helped make Michael Jordan

into a global icon, recalled a negotiation session with the Knicks in

1991. After Falk and player Patrick

manager looked Falk said he "I it

knew

at

knew

Ewing and that

asked,

Ewing was

that in [E wing's]

mind

celebrity of African

the general

"How much money is

that wasn't It

was

young black man, how much

'You're a

offer,

enough?"

offended, and so was he.

wasn't a negotiation statement.

The

Ewing made an

American

is

a racist statement saying,

enough?'

athletes

case that discrimination has disappeared

an economic statement,

and

is still

"

used to make the

that integration in the

West has created equal opportunity. For many, African American athletes

embody

the freedom and expanded opportunities that are there

work

hard.

elevated compensation of

some

for everybody, provided they

The

players obscures the reality

of exploitation and contemporary colonization. Black players have

become

a significant

presence in major team sports, but the sports

establishment has tenaciously resisted that presence percolating in equal

numbers throughout the industry in positions of authority and In 1988, the late

when he

Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder

said African

American

athletes

control.

created a firestorm

were physically superior

— PROLOGUE

jcii

because they had been bred for the

jump you

Black

he

athletes,

said,

"can

higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. I'm telling

that the black

ter athlete

the

role.

way

and

the better athlete and he practices to be the bet-

is

bred to be the better athlete, because

he's

to the Civil

War when, during

would breed

the slave owner,

his big

goes

this

all

the slave trading, the owner,

woman

so that he

would have

a

big black kid, you see."

comments

Snyder's silly

created a knee-jerk reaction and dredged

arguments about the merits (and lack thereof) of black

up

athletes'

so-called physical superiority.

me are the Hne, pump fakes

Those debates you into

The more stantial

sports

interesting part

concern.

is

for

He

wants them

to,

designed to entice you to leave your

of Snyder's comment

said that the only place

in coaching,

and

there

is

designed to suck

like play-action passes

if blacks

reflects a

feet.

more sub-

white people dominate

"take coaching, as

not going to be anything

I

think everyone

left

for the white

people."

This book

is

a

map,

a

look back

at

roads crossed, a glimpse forward at

roads not yet traveled. It's

difficult for professional athletes to

beyond

yesterday's

focus

on anything

game. They are so focused on the here and

the next game, the next season, the next contract sense of what

came

before,

and none

at all

the bend. History suggests that African

ever

on

historical

—

of what

American

that is

now

many have no

coming around

athletes should

be

the lookout. Their predecessors were excluded, blocked, per-

secuted, and eased out

when

white owners and management decided

they weren't needed or wanted. Today's generation of pro athletes

be wealthy, but they are simultaneously cheered and resented sion that cannot

—

may

a ten-

last forever.

The community of black athletes, like

the black

community

at large.

PROLOGUE is

some ways more powerful than ever

wealthier and in

many

other ways

Isolated in as

is

itself to

project the collective

power

it

afraid to use.

summer camps and prestigious

the budding millionaires that

universities

many of them

big-time college and professional players are far

with the

before, but in

resembles that wandering lost tribe, a fragmented

it

remnant unable to organize embodies but

xiii

racial reaUties that exist in

and pampered

will

become, today s

less

prepared to deal

America than any previous gener-

ation of athletes.

Yet todays if

you

will

— than

the

as if it

needed to

crossroads, the question

be,

how

life

in

is.

the

trail.

bounty hunter slavery,

that

we

this

forward? Have us, the

strike

road

to set a

who

new

tracked

life reflects

unprecedented

we

we

out on a

clearer understanding

illustrating

strayed too

tread as

new

of

young

path? In

how we

got

course.

escaped slaves

another bounty hunter of sorts

during is

still

A century later, pursuing from one Promised Land to an-

other, this hunter costly

America. At

road our ancestors paved for

America s period of

on the

black and white,

closely black sporting

Which way

men and women? Or does the future demand either case, we need to have a here before we can even begin Like

less

of the larger black community,

that

main currents of black

far frorn the

—

they've ever been before. Tragically, in this their

wandering mirrors once again,

more complex

racial realities are

$40 million

is

trying to catch, to replace, and to eliminate those

slaves.

This

is

the story of the chase so

far.

"

Glistening black bodies

on fields of dreams

on

battlefields, scoring,

between defense's seams.

Tight muscles bulging,

ferocious bucks

who

scratch

and

claw, say,

'Aw

shucks, wasn't much.

Cream-colored spectators cheer

and

roar

for conquering heroes

who conquer no more.

Introduction

In 1895, Charles Dana, the editor of the NewYork Sun, warned readers,

"We

are in the midst

of a growing menace. The black

his

man

is

rapidly forging to the front ranks in athletics especially in the field of fisticuffs.

We

are in the midst

of a black

Dana would be astounded by

The contemporary one of the defining

tribe

social

rise against

white supremacy."

the completeness of his prediction.

of African American athletes has become

and

cultural forces

of the United

States'

most

unique invention: the multibillion-doUar sports industry. Black athletes are running before.

and jumping higher than ever

faster

They earn more money

in

one season than

their predecessors

earned during their entire careers. Such contemporary African

American

athletes as

worshiped almost attending college incarcerated,

as is

LeBron James, Michael Vick, and Tiger Woods gods.

At

a

time

when

number of black males number being

increasing at a slower rate than the

young black men with

stellar athletic ability are still

pursued, coddled, and showered with

major colleges and

the

are

gifts for a

hotly

promise to attend

universities.

Black faces and black bodies are used to

sell

everything from cloth-

ing to deodorant and soft drinks. Their gestures, colorful language, and overall style are

used by Madison Avenue to project the

feel

ion of inner-city America to an eager global marketplace stealth

they're the

ambassadors of hip-hop culture and capitalism, bridges between

the "street" and the mainstream.

temporary black

No longer with hat in hand, the

athlete, represented

con-

by an impressive, mostly white

armada of advisers, demands rather than gifts

—

and fash-

and favors without even having to

asks.

ask.

Many

are

Who

could possibly

showered with call

these powerful, globe-straddling icons failures? I

do. Today, perhaps

more than

at

rich journey, black athletes are lost.

any other juncture of their long,

— WILLIAM

2

Despite their fifty-year

rise to

American

grated sports, African

RHODEN

C.

prominence on the

athletes

fields

— male and female —

of intestill

find

themselves on the periphery of true power in the industry their talent built. In the

public mind, the black athlete

is still

largely feared

despised, in keeping with the history of black Americans, cess

is

whose suc-

imminent danger. Every African American

often seen as an

accomphshment

and

in sports has

—

for

more than two

centuries

now

triggered a knee-jerk backlash from forces within the white majority.

The

strategies

of the white reactionaries have become predictable: to

and push back any black achievement, in an

take back, dilute, divide, effort to restore the

country since

from black

same balance of power one

slavery,

talent

and labor

white power. And, just see the backlash

in

which the bulk of the rewards reaped

are distributed to

as predictably,

coming

that has existed in this

and serve to perpetuate

black athletes have been slow to

until they have

been swamped by

it,

finding

themselves struggling just to survive. In their failure to heed the lessons

of history, today's black athletes are squandering the best opportunities yet for acquiring real

This

is

power

in the sports industry.

not the heartwarming and triumphant narrative to which

many of us have become accustomed from victory

to victory,

leagues to Arthur lighting the

at

a narrative

the story of an inspiring

Muhammad

Ali

more complicated

tale

Wimbledon

torch. This, in truth,

of continuous struggle, retreat,

the inspirational reel that goes

from Jackie Robinson breaking into the major

Ashe winning

Olympic

—

a

is

to

of victory and defeat, advance and

rise,

an unnecessary

fall,

and an uncer-

tain future.

Why are

today's athletes so lost?

The answer

lies

mainly in the succes-

sion of devastating spiritual losses black athletes have sustained since

they began participating in integrated sports. these has

been the

loss

The most

significant

of

of mission, a mission informed by a sense of

MILLION SLAVES

$40

3

connection to the larger African American community and

of struggle that made possible

responsibility to the legacy

phenomenal material

tion's

a sense

this

of

genera-

success.

This sense of mission has been a cornerstone of African American

of strength and

survival, a source

a larger cause has historically

A

sense of being part of

permeated nearly every action of the

many of our most prominent

black athlete. For their victories

inspiration.

athletes

were fueled in part by the notion

of every

race,

that they represented

something larger than themselves, that they embodied the values and aspirations

of

Black athletes have symbolically carried the

a people.

burden of proof;

v^eight of a race's eternal

among

human enough

the

—

most

much of this

part, carried that

power, and

style, grace,

United

States has

of this nation with

But

indeed,

full citizen-

century the black athlete has, for

burden in public and before the world with

nobility.

become

The

black physical presence in the

part of our collective folklore; the physical

level playing fields in other aspects

when so many black athletes

today,

or what

came

lete as part

Young

before, there

athletes,

them

is

no

of society.

have

as a

of

nation's

a

become

to

little

or no understanding

most prestigious

universities,

with the

but

from the

many

are largely

athletic roots.

history, either. If

encourage athletes to explore their

distracted

and hard.

sense of the ath-

long and rich tradition. Black athletes attend

their coaches aren't famiUar fail

no

and many older ones, have dropped the thread that

unaware of the depth and significance of their

of them

or no sense of who

foot soldier in a larger struggle.

to that struggle. They often have

some of the

little

sense of mission,

of a larger community,

that they are part

fast

—

of our athletes are metaphors for what African Americans might

do on

joins

enough

strong enough, brave

to share in the fruits

and humanity. For

feats

performances w^ere

the most visible evidences that blacks, as a community, w^ere

good enough, smart enough,

ship

their

task at hand: shooting,

they

Many

are,

of

many

roots, lest they

jumping, running

WILLIAM

4

A number campus

of years ago

I

was standing on the Seton Hall University

Mike Brown,

talking with

RHODEN

C.

the time an assistant basketball

at

coach. Tchaka Shipp, then a talented freshman player, was walking

campus wearing an Ethiopian Clowns

across

Negro Leagues. Mike compUmented Shipp on

his

know

it

tinued,

"You know

he

didn't;

"Do you

Brown con-

his head.

there was a time that blacks couldn't play major-

league baseball, don't you?" Shipp looked said,

said

looked sharp. Brown asked,

about the Negro Leagues?" Shipp shook

him

cap and asked

whether he knew anything about the Clowns. Shipp he'd bought the cap because

from the

baseball cap

at

Brown

incredulously and

"Coach, get the fuck outta here!"

Shipp 's stunned reaction was rooted in ignorance of history, not in

contempt. But that doesn't make

it

any

less

shocking or excusable.

Shortly after his encounter with Tchaka Shipp,

Mike Brown went out

and bought Negro League baseball caps for the entire team and had

them each write

a brief essay

on

the teams and their star players. Other

coaches have also attempted to remedy the historical blind spot of

contemporary

players. John

head basketball coach a

wider

at

Thompson, for

Georgetown

instance,

Museum

in

still

University, in an effort to paint

historical context for their Ufe journeys,

Civil Rights

when he was

took

his players to the

Memphis, Tennessee, on the

site

of the

Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was murdered, and to the Baptist

church in Birmingham, Alabama, where in 1963 four killed If

when

a

bomb

anyone should

little girls

were

the value of history, athletes should.

They

exploded during Sunday school.

know

spend most of their time studying the incessantly.

responsible coach

would think of sending

a

team into

game

Film allows the viewer to study an opponent's trends and to

assess

without having had

strengths, weaknesses,

the

watch game film

or her team spend hours studying

battle film.

No

past. Athletes

fiiture.

his

and tendencies in order to devise

strategies for

Film provides a means of studying the past to prepare for

$40

the future. Coaches

do

MILLION SLAVES

not, as a rule,

demand

5

that their black athletes

study their historical past, and this has created a vacuum. The magni-

tude of the

vacuum was

articulated a

Joan of Arc Elementary School in

"Who

asked me,

For

was the

many of us

idea of a player

Robinson

is

over

— any

who

player

blasphemous.

New York

(since

a

young

who NBA?"

were born in the United

— not

like

It s

knowing

girl at

renamed),

white player to integrate the

first

fifty

few years ago by

States, the

the story of Jackie

not knowing about Rosa Parks, the

Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, or the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycotts. For people of resistance

and

my

generation, the wide spectrum of black

conflict are carved into

our

hearts. Those events

remain

benchmarks

in the

so vivid, and represent such powerful emotional

ongoing

struggle, that

it is

inconceivable to us that anyone could for-

We remember the history of struggle, we recall the terms on which liberation was won. We understand how much distance has been covget.

ered, but

we

also

remind myself like outtakes era.

know how much more

that, for athletes

from

born

distance remains.

after

1970, these memories are

myths from

a grainy newsreel or epic

For the young black

athlete, the

mere idea

a long-lost

that Afirican

Americans

could not play professional baseball, basketball, or football

comprehension. After

all,

far

from remembering

leagues, this generation cannot recall a time athletes

a

cumstance

—

earlier era

when

when

at a

time

more or

less

united in

the black

common

beyond

African American sports landscape.

were forced by upbringing

to see themselves as part of a national

grew up

is

time of segregated

were not the dominant force in the mainstream

Black athletes of an

have to

I

— and

cir-

community. They

community could

still

be said to be

cause, a cause that transcended class,

educational level, and other secondary social categories. For hundreds

of years, athletes

as diverse as Jack Johnson, Jackie

Wilma Rudolph, and Althea Gibson were nity, a

community linked by

a

common

Robinson, Joe Louis,

part of that larger

commu-

human

rights in

struggle for

WILLIAM

6

The

the world's greatest democracy. clear: to attain

of Tom Molineaux,

champion boxer

late

in

a

power meant

former

slave

community were

literal

who

freedom,

the case

become

a

end of

after the

to carve out individual success, as

who dominated

of the black jockeys

as in

freed himself to

England. In the uncertain period

power meant using freedom

in the case

goals of that

power. The nature of that power evolved over time. In

the days of chattel slavery,

slavery,

RHODEN

C.

horse racing in the

nineteenth century. In the early years of Jim Crow, power meant

defying growing white supremacy, ualistic

way.

When

Jack Johnson did in his individ-

became the law of the

segregation

meant creating our own

as

institutions, like

Rube

power

land,

Negro

Foster's

Leagues, which created economies around sport and allowed for the

development of a uniquely black

power meant representing a bolically, in the

athletic style. In the Civil

force for change, both practically and

era,

sym-

manner of Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, or John Carlos

and Tommie Smith, the two American runners

who

raised their

fists

1968 Mexico City Olympics. In the era of integra-

in protest at the tion,

Rights

power often meant finding

a

way

to avoid the exploitation of the

complex and maintain

sports-industrial

munity, a goal that

many black

a link to the larger black

athletes, to their

com-

shame, failed to achieve

or even attempt.

And what defines the quest for power today, in our post-integration era, when black athletes have become rich and famous, and in some cases have achieved positions in management, or, in the case of Bob Johnson of the Charlotte Bobcats, even ownership?

The

quest today

is

to

remember. Black

athletic culture, like the rest

of Afirican American culture, evolved under the pressure of oppression.

At every

stage, that

been struggled turn, lessons

oppression

against,

— from

and in some

slavery to segregation

has

at

every

a legacy created.

Black

cases vanquished.

were learned, weapons formed,

But

—

athletes have historically struggled against the great

problems of

$40

American

life

—

MILLION SLAVES

in fact, the great

problems facing humanity. They have

fought dehumanization, an unfair playing

and inequalities ing

spirit, as

in

in fiery characters

Flood. The legacy of the black athlete

from Willie Mays

physical artists

is

economic

field,

power.The legacy of black

embodied

7

exploitation,

athletic culture

is

a fight-

from Jack Johnson to Curt

an elegant

developed by

style,

way of show-

to Allen Iverson, as a

casing the humanity, creativity, and improvisatory spirit of

its

practi-

tioners. And the legacy

of the black athlete

mission, as displayed by

Muhammad Ali's stands of conscience,Tommie

Smith's raised viable,

fist,

or

Rube

Foster's goal

an acceptance of a larger

is

of creating an economically

independent black baseball league. Each of these legacies was

initiated

and refined

as a

response to a specific historical barrier, but

the responsibility of black athletes today to understand

how

— and of

all

those legacies can also shape the

Ignorance of the past makes

it

of

us, really

—

is

fiature.

black athletes today to

difficult for

unite and confiront the issues of the present. This contemporary tribe,

with access to unprecedented wealth, failed to as

is

lost,

precisely because

it

has

New York Sun editor Charles Dana described athlete's "rise against white supremacy." On the contrary,

complete what

the black

African American athletes, blinded by a lack of history of what pre-

ceded them, have played

a

major

role in helping maintain

an

unfair,

corrupt, destructive system.

Today, the black athlete, while potentially is

or

at a historical nadir.

When

Mike Tyson or even

that the sense

powerfiil than ever,

the face of black sports

a raging capitaHst like

of larger mission has collapsed.

tural icon, the inheritor

become

more

is

Kobe Bryant

Bob Johnson,

A

of

its

struggle, has

white owners.

African American athletes today have the potential to be so

more than

More

that

— and God knows we need them

clear

once-dominant cul-

of an outsized legacy of glory and

a spectacle that exists at the pleasure

it's

to

much

be more than

that.

than politicians or clergy, contemporary black athletes have

WILLIAM

8

unfettered access to

have

lost their

tastes,

RHODEN

young minds, even when

own. They

exercise

at

times they seem to

phenomenal influence on

but their reach could potentially extend so

deeper. For instance, there

communities and life

C.

among many

growing and

less access to,

is

wider, and

or even hope

for, a substantially

The

divide

better

between the

greater than ever, but the diminishing of

the poorest of the poor

than black athletes to bridge

even more troubling.

is

this divide?

our

persistent poverty in

in the so-called underclass.

haves and have-nots

among

is

much

and

styles

Many

athletes

Who

hope

better

come out of

the most economically disadvantaged communities in the nation and

have used sports to catapult themselves from poverty to wealth.

Occupants of two worlds wealth

—

—

the world of the streets and the world of

these athletes can speak

while holding the kind of "keep

from it

a

real" pedigree that

evant to the core black community. But tion

perch of power and influence,

now

makes them

that they

occupy

rel-

a posi-

where they can be more than mere symbols of black achievement,

where they can

actually serve their

ways, while also addressing the

communities

in vital

and tangible

power imbalance within

industry from a position of greater strength, they

their

seem most

own

at a loss,

lacking purpose and drive. Given the journey that has led to this point,

contemporary black

athletes have abdicated their responsibility to the

community with treasonous that

vigor.

They

does not necessarily follow that

it

make him

if

stand as living, active proof

you make

a

man

rich,

you

free.

The contemporary

tribe

of black athletes

is

the greatest proof of

that yet.

But

it

doesn't have to be this way. Like the Sankofa bird of African

mythology,

we

have to look backward to see our way forward.

Studying a history of how black athletes have confronted and mastered a series

of obstacles and dilemmas over the centuries gives insight into

the contemporary dilemma.

It's

not nearly hopeless.

I

$40

This book seeks to lete,

tell

but also to point the

MILLION SLAVES

the story of the rise and

but

it

will also

fall

way toward redemption.

this exciting, rich, epic story ities,

9

It

of the black athwill seek to tell

with honesty and respect for

its

complex-

be driven by a sense of purpose: to fmd in that

his-

tory lessons that will help illuminate the still-darkened path to real

power

for the black athlete.

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