A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century AmericaWhen high jumper Alice Coachman won the high jump title at the 1941 national championships with "a spectacular leap," African American women had been participating in competitive sport for close to twenty-five years. Yet it would be another twenty years before they would experience something akin to the national fame and recognition that African American men had known since the 1930s, the days of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. From the 1920s, when black women athletes were confined to competing within the black community, through the heady days of the late twentieth century when they ruled the world of women's track and field, African American women found sport opened the door to a better life. However, they also discovered that success meant challenging perceptions that many Americans--both black and white--held of them. Through the stories of six athletes--Coachman, Ora Washington, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudloph, Wyomia Tyus, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee--Jennifer H. Lansbury deftly follows the emergence of black women athletes from the African American community; their confrontations with contemporary attitudes of race, class, and gender; and their encounters with the civil rights movement. Uncovering the various strategies the athletes use to beat back stereotypes, Lansbury explores the fullness of African American women's relationship with sport in the twentieth century. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | |
Introduction | |
1 Queen of the Courts | |
2 The Tuskegee Flash | |
3 A Nationwide Community Project | |
4 Foxes Not Oxes | |
5 The Swiftie from Tennessee State | |
6 A Jackie of All Trades | |
Epilogue | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America Jennifer H. Lansbury No preview available - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
African American African American women Albany Herald Alice Coachman Althea Gibson American society American Tennis American Women’s Track Angeles August Baltimore Afro-American basketball became began black community black press black tennis black women athletes black women track boycott Cahn career champion Chicago Defender Chicago Tribune civil rights coach Coming on Strong compete competition female athlete feminine field athletes gender girls gold medal Griffith Joyner heptathlon high jump high school Hornets Jackie Jackie Joyner-Kersee Johnson Joyner-Kersee July Kersee long jump meet men’s meter Olympic games Olympic gold Olympic trials Philadelphia Tribune Pittsburgh Courier play players race racial sportswriters sprint sprinter star stereotypes summer talent teammates Temple Collection Temple’s Tennessee Tigerbelles Tigerettes tournament track and field Tuskegee USLTA victory white tennis Wilma Rudolph Wimbledon woman women track athletes Women’s Sports women’s track working-class world record Wyomia Tyus York young