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I feel like every year I’m compelled to do this thread. But here we go again. https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1299776570463199232
Which days were these? When Muhammad Ali was stripped of his boxing license for refusing to go to Vietnam? When Jackie Robinson & Larry Doby broke the color line? When Hank Aaron endured death threats b/c he beat Babe Ruth’s homerun record?... https://www.si.com/boxing/2020/04/28/this-day-sports-history-muhammad-ali-refuses-induction-army-stripped-title
Maybe when Jesse Owens, the most decorated American athlete of the 1936 Olympics who faced down Nazis to win at track & field, was not allowed to go visit FDR with the white Olympic athletes when they returned home? https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/09/white-house-olympics-berlin/502325/
Yes the good old days of 1912 when one man - the Black heavyweight champ Jack Johnson - could inspire Congress to pass a federal law designed to punish him for having white girlfriends. He was prosecuted the year the Mann Act passed. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/25/this-day-in-politics-june-25-1910-663071
Maybe the great days were in 1975 when Lee Elder had to rent two houses to up his chances of surviving death threats to play in the Augusta Golf Championship in 1975? https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32234719
You could really “just play” 5 years earlier when the 1970 U.S. Open winner Arthur Ashe was barred by the apartheid govt of South Africa from entering South Africa for the SA National Championship? https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/29/archives/south-africa-denies-visa-to-arthur-ashe-ashe-visa-denied-by-south.html
Surely it was when Jackie Robinson & Larry Doby broke the color line in Major League Baseball? A good time to ignore social justice was when baseball great Hank Aaron endured hate mail & death threats b/c he had the gall to beat Babe Ruth’s homerun record? http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/04/us/hank-aaron-anniversary/
It’s the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, just a few months after Martin Luther King was assassinated. Track and field stars Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos were clearly thinking about more than track and field. So were the offcials who stripped the young men of their medals.
Maybe we just talk about the sport after addressing the sexual assault and harassment visited on young girl swimmers and gymnasts. We don’t want to ruin your enjoyment watching the sport with demands for accountability for harmed young women. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/06/10/usa-swimming-women-sue-alleged-sex-abuse/5339685002/
How about when President Carter ordered the entire American Olympic team to boycott the 1980 Olympics because of Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/sports/1980-usa-olympic-boycott-team-carter/
Athletes have often been the victims of racial & social justice failures of this country. Their voices have been important to our understanding of shared values & to pushing for change. From Ali, to Sandy Koufax, to Billie Jean King, to Colin Kaepernick. to Megan Rapinoe. #Speak
