More Than a Game

More than a Game discusses how African American men and women sought to participate in sport and what that participation meant to them, the African American community, and the United States more generally. Recognizing the complicated history of race in America and how sport can both divide and bring people together, the book chronicles the ways in which African Americans overcame racial discrimination to achieve success in an institution often described as America’s only true meritocracy. African Americans have often glorified sport, viewing it as one of the few ways they can achieve a better life. In reality, while some African Americans found fame and fortune in sport, most struggled just to participate – let alone succeed at the highest levels of sport. Thus, the book has two basic themes. It discusses the varied experiences of African Americans in sport and how their participation has both reflected and changed views of race.

Author Biography

David K. Wiggins, professor in the School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism and affiliated faculty member in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, is the author of Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America (1997), co-author of The Unlevel Playing Field: A Documentary History of theAfrican American Experience in Sport (2003), and editor or co-editor of Sport and the Color-Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth Century America (2003), Out ofthe Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes (2008), and Separate Games: African American Sport Behind the Walls of Segregation (2016). He is the former editor of the Journal of Sport History and currently president-elect of the North American Society for Sport History.