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William C. RhodenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 4 introduces the reader to Arthur “Rube” Foster, founder of the Negro National League (NNL). Rhoden argues that, while Jackie Robinson is considered the most crucial figure in African American athletics, Foster was the greater pioneer. Robinson, Rhoden explains, “became a symbol of the process of integration, a process that ultimately enriched white institutions while weakening and in many cases destroying black institutions” (101).
A visionary of sorts, Foster foresaw the inevitable desegregation of baseball and wanted to be certain that his NNL would “be in a position to dictate rather than be dictated to” (102). In order to achieve this dream, Foster would need to organize and to have a say in how “black muscle” would be employed. He finally succeeded in starting his league in 1920, and though he wasn’t the first to try, he was successful because of “the turbulence of the times, his relentless drive, and an emerging African American consciousness” (108).
Eventually, Foster would become dispirited by the fact that white owners, resentful of his success, would muster their power and numbers to refuse him the chance to have an all-black team compete in larger venues. Foster suffered from a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum, where he remained until his death in 1930.
The Negro League would eventually be picked apart, with white owners taking the players of their choosing, and there was no instance of all African American talent, including management and ownership. Rhoden laments: “By the 1960’s, black baseball was effectively dead. Major League Baseball had prevailed” (121).
Rhoden moves from baseball to collegiate football, focusing on historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and a player, Sam Cunningham, who unwittingly altered the way black players are recruited. During a historical game in 1970, Cunningham, an African American running back from the University of Southern California (USC) helped his team to defeat famed coach Bear Bryant’s all-white Alabama football team. Cunningham, Rhoden writes, “would be called the catalyst for integration in the South” (129).
Another key player for USC was Clarence Davis, who, though playing for a California team, was a native Alabamian. Rhoden explains: “The particular fascination with Davis reflected the way sports-crazed Southerners were struggling with race” (132). These mostly white fans were historically revulsed by the black presence; however, they knew that black athletes were needed if their teams were to prevail.
This form of integration came at a very steep price; Rhoden here lists drawbacks that come with integrating sports. First, integration created a fissure in black unity. Second, it stifled a burgeoning movement among African Americans for empowerment and agency. There was also, Rhoden argues, a psychic loss: Upon being recruited to far-flung universities, most young black athletes found themselves separated from their families and the communities that reared them. Furthermore, while players could earn scholarships and an education, black coaches—often former players themselves—found that being promoted into administrative positions would prove nearly impossible.
This chapter explains “black style” and credits such players as Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson for being pioneers of this style, which, Rhoden determines, bears its own set of complexities in the white-dominated world of sports ownership and management.
For Rhoden, Mays’s performance was a revelation, in particular a stylized defensive play on a standard fly ball out that he had never before witnessed: Mays had casually gotten into position to make the out, and, rather than holding his glove at eye level and eyeing the ball into his glove, he simply held his glove at waist level and let the ball fall in. Rhoden writes of this seemingly simple play, “I felt so much in that catch—jazz and blues and all the R&B I loved. […] Plain greatness wasn’t enough; you had to play with style and soul” (149).
Before Mays, Jackie Robinson also demonstrated this flair for the dramatic, though his style was more restrained. Fearing reprisal from teammates, fans, and ownership, he toned down his style. As Rhoden claims, “Robinson integrated sports racially, but Mays completed the job, integrating sports stylistically” (150). What is important to note is that, without Robinson breaking the barrier, Mays would not have been able to reach his eventual level of success and fame.
After citing other examples of African American athletes using their style to succeed both athletically and psychically, Rhoden asks if this black style ever translated into black power. The answer, for Rhoden, is an unequivocal no: “The fact is that black style was quickly commoditized by white power, which became addicted to this other new form of black gold” (168). Many black entrepreneurs, according to Rhoden, quite literally sold out to white investors, including Berry Gordy of Motown and Bob Johnson, founder of BET.
Rhoden employs a number of strategic devices to engage readers and to allow his audience to sympathize with the athletes—and their families—by chronicling their histories. Additionally, he relies on authoritative commentary from noted figures to bolster and enhance his claims. Lastly, he uses his own stories to create a reliable, honest, and self-aware narrator of events.
Foster, founder of the Negro Leagues, faced countless barriers, including being raised by a strict Methodist preacher who thought that sporting events were sinful and self-serving. His mother died when he was 20 years old. While relying on sports as a kind of salvation, Foster found himself forced to relocate time and time again. He would also later be criticized for his “domineering, heavy-handed management style” (111), even though it was this style that helped his league survive, albeit for a short time. Additionally, the mother of Clarence Davis—football player for USC—recounts her experiences trying to encourage her son in a hostile environment. When the USC team visited Alabama, the players dared not leave their hotel room. She recalls getting into an argument with a member of the hotel staff and being called a “nigger” (134) by people in the stands. Inclusion of this kind of information, though it could be dismissed as tangential, is crucial to spurring the readers’ willingness to follow Rhoden’s argument.
Furthermore, citing recorded history, Rhoden sets the stage for the dramatic events that he details. During Foster’s time, for example, 78 African Americans were lynched in one year; in 1919, a race riot broke out in Chicago, lasting 10 days. Rhoden uses statistics to give his argument more weight, explaining that, in 1994, African Americans filled a mere 10% of administrative positions (140). Rhoden’s aim is to inform current black athletes that the events he describes did not happen in a vacuum; the misery faced by previous generations in fact paved the way for the generation of today.
Rhoden shows himself as someone with the human frailties common to all; this strategy helps to leaven his unconventional pronouncements. For example, he tries, and fails, to imitate Willie Mays’s catching style: “The ball landed on my head, hit my chest […] Catching a fly ball was hard enough. Making it look easy was impossible” (149).