Alison Mariella Désir - Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasnt Built for Us

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: Large numbers of African people are forcibly kidnapped and sold into slavery in U.S. colonies and islands in the Caribbean.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: The enslaved people of Haiti rise up against their French colonizers, launching whats believed to be the largest slave revolt in history and establishing the first Black republic.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: Separate rail cars are instituted on the Eastern Railroad between Boston and Salem, the first known origins of segregation.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: The Thirteenth Amendment passes, ending slavery; Southern states begin to pass Black Codes.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: The white nationalist group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is founded; it wages a campaign of violence against Black people.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: 4,743 lynchings occur in the U.S.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: Boston Athletic Association (BAA) is established.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: De jure and de facto segregation divide cities and towns across the U.S. in all manner of public spacerailroads, streetcars, theaters, parks, schools, restaurants, pools, restrooms, drinking fountains, etc.dictating where Black Americans can eat, drink, sit, and walk.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: The first modern Olympic Games and the first running of the marathon are held.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: In Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court (all white men) rules that racial segregation laws do not violate the Constitution, a doctrine that came to be known as separate but equal.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: The BAA holds first Boston Marathon.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: Charles Burden, a Black man, wins the first marathon held in the South.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: Howard Hall, a Black man, wins the Pittsburgh Marathon.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: An interracial group establishes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and lobbies for anti-lynching laws.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: Earl Johnson becomes the first known Black man to be internationally ranked as a distance runner.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: The Great Migration takes place, during which six million African Americans move out of the South to points in the North, West, and Midwest.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: Aaron Morris becomes the first known Black man to run the Boston Marathon, finishing sixth.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: The KKK reaches four million members. Oregon has the highest membership rate per capita.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: Redlining and other forms of housing discrimination begin, eventually leading to the creation of inner cities.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: Most cities and suburbs adopt racial covenants prohibiting Black families from owning or renting in white areas.

BLACK PEOPLES REALITY: Most Southern states bar Black people from using state parks.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: The New York Pioneer Club is established by African Americans Joseph J. Yancey, Robert Douglas, and William Culbreath in Harlem, New York, as a running and civil rights group.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: The New York Pioneer Club changes its constitution to allow members no matter their race or creed, becoming one of the first large-scale interracial clubs in any sport, amateur or professional. The New York Athletic Club prohibits Black people from joining.

U.S. RUNNING HISTORY: The U.S.s top Black track athletes plan a boycott of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in San Antonio due to Jim Crow conditions.