Helen Plum Library

Satchel Paige began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues in Alabama in the 1920s. For years, Jim Crow laws, which segregated blacks and whites, kept him out of the major leagues. But they couldn't stop him from becoming a world-class athlete. This is a fictionalized account of a real-life sports hero

Places important topics in context so that readers will understand the connection between black history and the sweep of America's story. This volume covers African Americans in sports.

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front-and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience...

"Against the backdrop of ongoing massive resistance to racial desegregation and increasingly strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation's imagined descent into disorder. The press and the public blamed young Black players for the chaos in the NBA, citing drugs, violence, greed, and criminality. The supposed decline of pro basketball became a metaphor for the first decades of integration in America: the rules of the game...

Celebrates the dynamic journey of Negro League baseball's triumphs and challenges through the first half of the 20th century, exploring Black baseball as an economic and social pillar of Black communities, and a showcase for some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game, while exposing unintended consequences of the sport's integration

"In the 1960s Charlie Sifford became the first African American to break the color barrier in golf and despite discrimination went on to win the PGA tournament"--

"This book explores controversies in sports, including black boxer Jack Johnson, Jessie Owens in the 1936 Olympics, Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier, Muhammad Ali's refusal to fight in the Vietnam War, #MeToo and the US gymnastics team, and much more"--

"A captivating book that brilliantly reveals an American sports legend long overlooked. Sally Jacobs tells the riveting story of Althea Gibson, my personal hero, who overcame daunting odds - on the tennis court and off - to stand at the world pinnacle of her sport and became an inspiration to many." - Billie Jean King In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis...

"Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women's rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women's advocate"-- From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women's pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, misogyny in sports is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us. DiCaro has been...

"A richly reported and provocative look at the history of women's sports and the controversy surrounding trans athletes by a leading LGBTQ+ sports journalist. For decades women have been playing competitive sports thanks in large part to the protective cover of Title IX. Since passage of that law, the number of women participating in sports and the level of competition in high school, college, and professionally, has risen dramatically. In Fair Play,...