In America it would be unthinkable to have a football, baseball or basketball team without Blacks. But it has not always been that way; Blacks have had to struggle to penetrate virtually every sport, including boxing.

August was a landmark month in Historic African Diaspora in more ways than one. It was the month that saw James Seale sentenced to three life terms for the murder of two Black youth 34 years earlier.

The week after, the world of tennis honoured Althea Gibson for her contribution to the game, 50 years after that courageous Black woman won Wimbledon, the most prestigious event in that sport.

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In 1964 James Seale was a white supremacist, who oversaw the execution of two Black teenagers caught hitchhiking through the racially brutal state of Mississippi. Seale had them beaten up then stuck into the boot of a car and pushed into the Mississippi River while still alive. In the view of the sitting judge, it was “a horrible and unspeakable crime that only a monster could inflict upon these poor youths”. Motive? To intimidate civil rights activists to beware that Mississippi was out of bounds for their ‘agitations.’

Seale expected to walk away from his crime with impunity. After all, Mississippi is the heartland of Dixie where taking a Black person’s life was once less of a ‘sin’ than killing a dog. Without a word being uttered, the entire local law enforcement and judicial system were expected to shield Seale to the hilt.

This atmosphere started to change in the early 1960s. Matters came to a head over the question of whether Black Americans had the constitutional right to attend public schools of their choice. Southern states such as Kansas and Alabama insisted that they did not. Under President John F Kennedy, Federal Authorities thought otherwise.

In Alabama matters approached crisis level when the Governor, George Wallace, physically blocked Black students from entering the University of Alabama to register. But Kennedy was equally determined that America had to honour the constitutional rights of Black Americans. He dispatched Federal marshals to ensure that those rights were indeed safeguarded at the University of Alabama.

It was reminiscent of the run-up to the American civil war but, fortunately, Governor Wallace backed off. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson formally institutionalised the civil rights and voting rights acts in support of Black Americans. LBJ perhaps had an easier time of it than JFK would have; he was a master political manipulator and he was himself a Southerner.

Is it the laws that changed Mississippi or is it the attitude of Mississippians towards the rights of African-Americans that improved? A case could be made that it is the American laws that changed. Yet, it has to be remembered that predominantly white jurors convicted Seale and others for their crimes of the days gone by.

Historically, Blacks have used their superior athleticism to defy racism. Today, the presence of Black people in all major sports is undeniable. To the Europeans the presence of Africans in European football has elevated the game to higher levels; that presence has enriched the game.

In America it would be unthinkable to have a football, baseball or basketball team without Blacks. But it has not always been that way; Blacks have had to struggle to penetrate virtually every sport, including boxing.

The penetration has not been universal. Tennis has remained defiantly white. Yet, when Althea Gibson was honoured earlier this week at the opening night of the US Open, that event took place at a stadium named after another Black tennis superstar, Arthur Ashe.

Both Gibson and Ashe are classic symbols of defying racial odds. Athletically, they conquered the Mount Everest of tennis by winning Wimbledon in 1957-58 and 1975 respectively. Yet, tennis is a white man’s game precisely because it is extremely expensive to groom a player to become a world-class player. It takes patience, persistence, endurance and, yes, lots of money. These are rare luxuries for Blacks.

Gibson and Ashe were by no means rich as they grew up. Neither were the current Black tennis superstars, Venus and Serena Williams sisters. They all grew up poor yet rose to reign supreme in a game they did not own. Gibson cracked the door for them and they walked in. Honouring her this week did not come a day too soon.

References:

[1.] The Althea Gibson Website.

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