Swanson Ryan A. - Separate games African American sport behind the walls of segregation

Sport is an extraordinarily important phenomenon that pervades the lives of many people and has enormous impact on society in an assortment of different ways. At its most fundamental level, sport has the power to bring people great joy and satisfy their competitive urges while at once allowing them to form bonds and a sense of community with others from diverse backgrounds and interests and various walks of life. Sport also makes clear, especially at the highest levels of competition, the lengths that people will go to achieve victory as well as how closely connected it is to business, education, politics, economics, religion, law, family, and other societal institutions. Sport is, moreover, partly about identity development and how individuals and groups, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class, have sought to elevate their status and realize material success and social mobility.

Sport, Culture, and Society seeks to promote a greater understanding of the aforementioned issues and many others. Recognizing sports powerful influence and ability to change peoples lives in significant and important ways, the series focuses on topics ranging from urbanization and community development to biographies and intercollegiate athletics. It includes both monographs and anthologies that are characterized by excellent scholarship, accessible to a wide audience, and interesting and thoughtful in design and interpretations. Singular features of the series are authors and editors representing a variety of disciplinary areas and who adopt different methodological approaches. The series also includes works by individuals at various stages of their careers, both sport studies scholars of outstanding talent just beginning to make their mark on the field and more experienced scholars of sport with established reputations.

Separate Games traces the history of some of the most prominent and influential African American sports teams, events, and organizations during the era of racial segregation. Edited by Ryan Swanson and myself, the anthology includes twelve chapters written by scholars who are well versed in the interconnection among race, sport, and American culture. The result is a book that makes clear how important sports programs were to African Americans behind the walls of segregation. In addition to helping convince those in predominantly white organized sport of the ability level of individual black athletes, separate or parallel sports programs were important to African Americans because it provided examples of black self-help and organizational skills while at once engendering a sense of racial and community pride.These sports programs, moreover, were important to African Americans because they served as symbols of possibility and examples of achievement during a period in American history characterized by rampant forms of racial discrimination in sport and society at large.

David K. Wiggins