Rhoden - $40 million slaves: the rise, fall, and redemption of the Black athlete

A CCLAIM FOR W ILLIAM C. R HODEN S
$40 MILLION SLAVES

Rhoden scores heavily with this Muhammad Ali of a book, one that blends autobiography with history, clarity of insight with passion. Few writers can match Bill Rhoden as a commentator on the vexing subject of race and sports in America. While others pretend that racism in sports never existed or lived a short life, he reminds us, with hard, discomforting honesty, that the truth is something else. $40 Million Slaves gives us a series of invaluable and irrefutable history lessons and contemporary cameos to illustrate Rhodens thesis that even the best paid of black American athletes live a double lifehighly compensated, but in a state not unlike bondage.Arnold Rampersad, author of Jackie Robinson: A Biography and, with Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace: A Memoir

Rhoden has done his homework. he wants readers to understand how disassociated many successful black athletes are from black society, how disconnected they are from politics, power, and team ownership. Interesting enough, [his] tender evocation of his childhood and college yearsand his love for the history of sportsmake this book a powerful call for more black athletes to give back to their communities.Los Angeles Times

Brilliant a beautifully written, complex, and rich narrative. Rhoden offers a wonderful balance between the often-forgotten histories of great black athletes, such as bicyclist Major Taylor, Negro League entrepreneur Rube Foster, and college football great Sam Cunningham, and nuanced social commentaries on the commercial exploitation of blackness, white control of the sporting world, and the devastating effects of integration on the Negro Leagues and the sports teams at historically black colleges and universities.Washington Post Book World

William Rhoden has written a powerful and prophetic book. He courageously lays bare painful truths about a fundamental reality in American life: the centrality of the excellence and exploitation of black athletes.Cornel West, author of Race Matters

An explosive and absorbing discussion of race, politics, and the history of American sports. Rhoden weaves a compelling narrative of their history while making the argument that the evolution of the black athlete has merely been a journey from literal plantations to figurative ones.Ebony

This is the best contemporary writingand best fuel for debateon the large role black athletes hold in American culture. Bill Rhoden is playing hardball with stars from Michael Jordan to Mike Tyson on the issue of blacks and sports by bringing history, politics, and race on the field.Juan Williams, author of Eyes on the Prize and Enough

A charged assessment of the state of black athletes in America, using the pervasive metaphor of the plantation to describe a modern sports industry defined by white ownership and black labor. Rhodens writing is intelligent and cogent.Publishers Weekly

For more than twenty years, William Rhoden has challenged his readers to look beyond the obvious in sports, beyond the highlights and scores. $40 Million Slaves thoughtfully intensifies that challenge. Once I started reading I could not stop. Informative, engaging, and extremely provocative, $40 Million Slaves caused me to alternately shake my head in violent disagreement one moment only to find myself nodding in agreement the next. Reading this work is an emotional experience. Every parent or guardian of an African American athlete should read the chapter, The Conveyor Belt. Every African American athlete should read the entire book. Ditto every American sports fan. All will be challenged and, more important, enlightened.Calvin Hill, former NFL All-Star and father of NBA All-Star Grant Hill

Rhodens idea that black athletes have the power to break whatever chains still bind them is good news.Sports Illustrated

No one can fully understand the place of sports in our society without considering the impact of race, both historically and currently. Bill Rhodens new book is a provocative contribution to the literature on race and sports. For anyone who cares about Americas future and sport in America, it is well worth reading.Paul Tagliabue, former commissioner, National Football League

In his provocative, important, and disturbing book, [Rhoden] builds a historical framework that both accounts for the variety of African American athletic experience and continues to explain them today.International Herald Tribune

Bill Rhoden has always been on the cutting edge of sports journalism. In $40 Million Slaves, he cuts to the heart of the matter and delivers a penetrating slice of the long and often painful journey to success taken by black athletes. This is a book that touches the soul.Neil Amdur, former sports editor, New York Times

Compelling Rhodens book is well researched and he adroitly weaves personal narrative.Chicago Sun Times

Ive been reading Bill Rhodens columns for more than a decade and always feel like Im learning something or getting a fresh perspective. Ive written about and talked about black athletes for forty years but Rhodens new book, breathtaking in scope, breaks more new ground. If you want to honestly view race in America, $40 Million Slaves will give you the prism of sports as a vehicle to see how far we still have to go to really achieve equality in America. Its a must read.Richard Lapchick, director emeritus, Center for the Study of Sport in Society; columnist, ESPN.com; and author of Smashing Barriers

Provocative and distressing-just the right combination for beginning an important conversation.Kirkus Reviews

Copyright 2006 by William C. Rhoden

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York in 2006.

The poem by William C. Rhoden.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rhoden, William C.
$40 million slaves: the rise, fall, and redemption of the black athlete /
William Rhoden.1st ed.
p. cm.
1. African American athletesHistory. 2. SportsUnited StatesHistory.
3. Discrimination in sportsUnited StatesHistory. 4. African American athletesSocial conditions. I. Title: Forty million dollar slaves. II. Title.

GV583R46 2006

796.08996073dc22 2005034952

eISBN: 978-0-307-56574-7

v3.1

To Sharon and Raisa: the other half of my heartbeat
My guiding lights, Bill and Janet Rhoden
My pillars of support, George and Mary Lopez