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To “Bring the Race along Rapidly”: Sport, Student Culture, and Educational Mission at Historically Black Colleges during the Interwar Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Patrick B. Miller*
Affiliation:
Northeastern Illinois University
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“Athletics is the universal language,” an editorialist asserted in the Howard University campus newspaper in the spring of 1924. “By and through it we hope to foster a better and more fraternal spirit between the races in America and so to destroy prejudices; to learn and to be taught; to facilitate a universal brotherhood.” Such sentiments had been enunciated since the turn of the century. But it was during the interwar years that the athletic ideal resonated most intensely for various commentators on the prospects for racial reform. Capturing the belief shared by numerous African American leaders that the football gridiron and baseball diamond, the track oval, and even the boxing ring offered significant platforms for proving equality, the Howard student writer carefully articulated the widespread desire that black athletes might engage white society in a broad-based dialogue about democratic principles and practices. Ideally, the success of African Americans in sport would provide powerful lessons in “interracial education.”

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the History of Education Society 

References

1 Howard University Hilltop , 29 Apr. 1924.Google Scholar

2 On the African American experience in sports generally, see Henderson, Edwin Bancroft, The Negro in Sports (Washington, D.C., 1939); idem, The Black Athlete: Emergence and Arrival (New York, 1968); Chalk, Ccania, Pioneers of Black Sport: The Early Days of the Black Professional Athlete in Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, and Football (New York, 1975); idem, Black College Sport (New York, 1976); Ashe, Arthur Jr., A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete (New York, 1988). The qualification for boxing is noteworthy. While newspapers extolled the achievements of black boxers, periodicals like Crisis, edited from 1910 to 1933 by Du Bois, W. E. B., opposed prize-fighting as an emblem of racial pride and aspiration. On blacks and boxing, see Roberts, Randy, Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (New York, 1983); Sammons, Jeffrey T., Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society (Urbana, Ill., 1988), 34–53.Google Scholar

3 Concerning black education in the South, the principal works are Anderson, James D., The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1988); and Wolters, Raymond, The New Negro on Campus: Black College Rebellions of the 1920s (Princeton, N.J., 1975). See also Meier, August, Negro Thought in America, 1880–1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1963). “Glare and glamour” quotation from Henderson, Edwin B., “Sports,” Messenger 8 (Feb. 1926): 51.Google Scholar

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7 Several of these themes are explored more broadly in Miller, Patrick B., The Playing Fields of American Culture: Athletics and Higher Education, 1850–1945 (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), chs. 7, 8. For a sense of the breakthroughs as well as the setbacks in the desegregation of college sport during these years, see Spivey, Donald, “‘End Jim Crow in Sports’: The Protest at New York University, 1940–1941,” Journal of Sport History 15 (Winter 1988): 282–303; and Miller, Patrick B., “Harvard and the Color Line: The Case of Lucien Alexis,” in Sports in Massachusetts: Historical Essays , ed. Story, Ronald (Westfield, Mass., 1991), 137–58. For newspaper files on black sports heroes, see Scrapbook Collection, Sports, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Tuskegee Institute News Clippings File, Microfilm Collection, 1978, Tuskegee Institute, Ala. See also Tygiel, Jules, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York, 1983); Baker, William J., Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York, 1986); Duberman, Martin B., Paul Robeson (New York, 1988), 19–24; Carroll, John M., Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement (Urbana, Ill., 1992).Google Scholar

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12 See Little, Monroe H., “The Extra-Curricular Activities of Black College Students, 1868–1940,” Journal of Negro History 65 (Spring 1980): 135–48; Edmonds, Randolph, “Some Whys and Wherefores of College Dramatics,” Crisis 37 (Mar. 1930): 92, 105.Google Scholar

13 It was Charles W. Snyder, Jr., who wanted “to raise the honor” of his school, in the Fisk Herald, Jan. 1893, 5. I am indebted to Beth Howse, director of Special Collections at Fisk University, for making this and other materials available to me. Little, , “The Extra-Curricular Activities of Black College Students.” For sporting developments, see Henderson, , “The Colored College Athlete”; and Chalk, , Black College Sport, as well as institutional histories, such as Richardson, Joe M., A History of Fisk University, 1865–1946 (Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1980); Bacote, Clarence A., The Story of Atlanta University: A Century of Service, 1865–1965 (Atlanta, Ga., 1969); Black Patterson, Zella J., Langston University: A History (Norman, Okla., 1979); McGinnis, Frederick A., A History and an Interpretation of Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, Ohio, 1941).Google Scholar

14 See Henderson, , The Negro in Sports, 100; Chalk, , Black College Sport, 199–200; Heintze, , Private Black Colleges in Texas, 171; Hurd, Michael, Black College Football, 1892–1992: One Hundred Years of History, Education, and Pride (Virginia Beach, Va., 1993), 28; Ashe, , Hard Road to Glory, 2: 100.Google Scholar

15 See Hurd, , Black College Football, 153–62; Richardson, , A History of Fisk, 157.Google Scholar

16 Patterson, , Langston University, 172–75.Google Scholar

17 Howard University Record 16 (Dec. 1921): 126. Concerning distinctive half-time activities in more recent years, see Hurd, Michael and Spence, Stan C., “Halftime: The Band Be Kickin'!” in Hurd, , Black College Football, 123–29.Google Scholar

18 Howard Alumni Sentinel 6 (Feb. 1923): 1314. Lee, J. R. E. quoted in Neyland, Leedell W., The History of Florida A & M University (Gainesville, Fla., 1963), 127; Standish quoted in Jones, Maxine D. and Richardson, Joe M., Talladega College: The First Century (Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1990), 95.Google Scholar

19 On the relation of gender and sport in the black community, see Williams, Linda, “An Analysis of American Sportswomen in Two Negro Newspapers: The Pittsburgh Courier, 1924–1948, and the Chicago Defender, 1932–1948” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1987); and Cahn, Susan K., Coming On Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women's Sport (New York, 1994), 110–39.Google Scholar

20 See Lewis, Ira F., “Intercollegiate Track Meet to Be Held at Howard on May 14,” Competitor 3 (May 1921): 40, 42; Williams, Charles H., “Twenty Years Work of the C.I.A.A.,” Southern Workman 61 (Feb. 1932): 65–76; Norfolk Journal and Guide, 16 Apr. 1932; Henderson, , The Negro in Sports, 288–301; Chalk, , Black College Sport. Google Scholar

21 Streator, George, “Football in Negro Colleges,” 129–30, 141. A list of “bad” offenders included Lincoln (Pa.), Wilberforce, South Carolina State, Allen University, Claflin, and Morris Brown. “Medium, in need of further reform,” were Fisk, West Virginia State, Knoxville, and Kentucky State. Streator ranked Hampton, Howard, Morehouse, Wiley', and Tuskegee as good.Google Scholar

22 Streator, , “Football in Negro Colleges,” 129–30, 141.Google Scholar

23 Richardson, , A History of Fisk, 158; Streator, , “Negro Football Standards,” 85–86; Du Bois, , “Athletics in Negro Colleges,” 209. Stevenson, perhaps the greatest black college football player of his era, played for eight seasons in all. See Ashe, , A Hard Road to Glory, 2: 101.Google Scholar

24 See, for instance, Sinclair, Upton, The Goose-Step: A Study of American Education, 4 vols. (Pasadena, Calif., 1923); and more importantly, Bulletin no. 23 of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Savage, Howard J., with Bentley, Harold W., McGovern, John T., and Smiley, Dean F., American College Athletics (New York, 1929). This was an exhaustive, thoroughly documented, survey of the athletic practices of more than one hundred (white) institutions of higher education. See also Tunis, John R., $port$: Heroics and Hysterics (New York, 1928); and Harris, Reed, King Football: The Vulgarization of the American College (New York, 1932). A recent appraisal of the issue is Thelin, John R., Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics (Baltimore, Md., 1994), 13–37.Google Scholar

25 Streator, , “Negro Football Standards,” 8586; “Football in Negro Colleges,” 129–30.Google Scholar

26 Du Bois, , “Athletics in Negro Colleges,” 210. Howard had already played football against Cooper Union of New York City and baseball against Columbia University. Wilson, Louis L., “A New Athletic Policy at Howard University,” Howard Alumnus 3(15 Jan. 1925): 60–61.Google Scholar

27 Wolters, , The New Negro on Campus, 2969; Jackson, Abigail to Du Bois, , 20 Jan. 1925, cited in ibid., 45; Richardson, , A History of Fisk University, 157–58; Anderson, , The Education of Blacks in the South, 265–70.Google Scholar

28 See Washington American, 25 Apr. 1925; Chicago Whip, 27 Feb. 1926. Concerning the next round of debates, see Du Bois, , “Athletics in Negro Colleges,” 209–10.Google Scholar

29 For Howard under Durkee, see Scott, Emmett J., “The ‘New Howard,”’ Competitor 1 (Jan. 1920): 1011; Williams, E. C., “Howard University,” Crisis 23 (Feb. 1922): 157, 162; Wolters, , The New Negro on Campus, 70–136. See also, Dyson, Walter, Howard University: The Capstone of Negro Education: A History, 1867–1940 (Washington, D.C., 1941), 396–98; Logan, Rayford Whittingham, Howard University: The First One Hundred Years, 1867–1967 (New York, 1968), 187–246. I am indebted to Hylan Lewis, a former professor of sociology at Howard, for pointing out (with a certain flourish) the date of the transformation of the University of Maryland.Google Scholar

30 For the Miller case, see Davis, Edward P., “Howard and the C.I.A.A.,” Howard Alumnus 3 (15 Jan. 1925): 4849, 52, 59; Howard Alumnus 4 (15 May 1925): 139–40; Chalk, , Black College Sport, 236–37.Google Scholar

31 On Howard in the Johnson years, see Dyson, , Howard University, 66, 398401, 433–38; Logan, , Howard University, 247–406. Interesting perspectives can be found in McNeil, Genna Rae, Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights (Philadelphia, 1983); Manning, Kenneth, Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just (New York, 1983), 208–10; Janken, Kenneth R., Rayford W. Logan and the Dilemma of the African-American Intellectual (Amherst, Mass., 1993), 202–14. Robert Cohen nicely captures the many dimensions of Johnson in When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929–1941 (New York, 1993), 219, 395 n. 104.Google Scholar

32 On athletic matters, see Wilson, , “A New Athletic Policy,” 6061. On the strikes, see Howard University Hilltop, 18 Oct. 1927; Chalk, , Black College Sport, 245–48.Google Scholar

33 Du Bois, , “Education and Work,” in The Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, ed. Lester, Julius (New York, 1971) 1: 563. See also Davis, Edward P., “The Function of a Board of Athletic Control,” Howard Alumnus 5 (Feb. 1927): 115.Google Scholar

34 Howard Hilltop , 7 and 14 Nov. 1927. See also the clippings, reports, and other materials in Box 25, Ralph Bunche Papers, Manuscripts Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City.Google Scholar

35 New York Amsterdam News for both 1929 and 1940, quoted in Chalk, , Black College Sport, 275–76. See also, Henderson, , “Sports,” Messenger 8 (May 1926): 149, and 8 (Aug. 1926): 247; idem, The Negro in Sports, 356–59.Google Scholar

36 Davis, Allison, “The Second Generation: College Athlete,” Crisis 35 (Mar. 1928): 87.Google Scholar

37 Fisk Herald , Nov. 1894.Google Scholar

38 Cromwell, Dean and Wesson, Al, Championship Techniques in Track and Field (New York, 1941), 6. See also “Black Football Is Beautiful,” in McCallum, John and Pearson, Charles H., College Football USA, 1869–1973: Official Book of the National Football Foundation (New York, 1973), 231; Kane, Martin, “An Assessment of ‘Black Is Best,”’ Sports Illustrated, 18 Jan. 1971, 72–83. On scientific racism generally, see Gould, Stephen Jay, The Mismeasure of Man (New York, 1981); Ludmerer, Kenneth M., “American Geneticists and the Eugenics Movement, 1905–1935,” Journal of the History of Biology 2 (Fall 1969): 337–62; Manning, , Black Apollo of Science, 49–50; Barkan, Elazar, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain and the United States between the World Wars (New York, 1992).Google Scholar

39 For criticism of the various explanations among whites that emphasized distinctive anatomical and physiological advantages, see the Peoria Transcript, 9 July 1933; Henderson, , “The Negro Athlete and Race Prejudice,” 79; Montague Cobb, W., “Race and Runners,” Journal of Health and Physical Education 7 (Jan. 1936): 3–6. The best historical assessment of the issue is Wiggins, David K., “‘Great Speed but Little Stamina’: The Historical Debate over Black Athletic Superiority,” Journal of Sport History 16 (Summer 1989): 158–85. See also Sailes, Gary A., “The Myth of Black Sports Supremacy,” Journal of Black Studies 21 (June 1991): 480–87.Google Scholar

40 Edwards, Harry, The Revolt of the Black Athlete (New York, 1969); and idem, Sociology of Sport (Homewood, Ill., 1973). See also Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York, 1977), 135–69; Gates, Henry Louis Jr., ed. “Race,” Writing, and Difference (Chicago, 1986), 185–261; Hoberman, John M., Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport (New York, 1992), 33–61.Google Scholar

41 Hoose, Philip M., Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports (New York, 1989). The NBC News documentary, a “Brokaw Report” on “Black Athletes—Fact and Fiction” was aired on 25 Apr. 1989. For impressive assessments of this program, see Davis, Laurel R., “The Articulation of Difference: White Preoccupation with the Question of Racially Linked Genetic Differences among Athletes,” Sociology of Sport Journal 7 (June 1990): 179–87; Hoberman, John, “‘Black Athletes—Fact and Fiction’: A Racist Documentary?” lecture presented at the convention of the American Psychological Association, 14 Aug. 1990. I am indebted to Professor Hoberman for sharing this paper with me.Google Scholar