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Today marks the beginning of #BlackHistoryMonth 
. As a coach, I think it's appropriate to highlight important Black athletes through history and the impacts they made to society outside of sport
. As a coach, I think it's appropriate to highlight important Black athletes through history and the impacts they made to society outside of sport
There's no one better to start with than Curt Flood, one of the best outfielders in the MLB through the 1960s. MLB is exempted from antitrust laws in the US, and every contract included a Reserve Clause, which allowed teams to extend an expiring contract without limit.
Flood challenged this, and penned a letter to the commissioner" After 12 years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.” He ended up having to sue MLB, and his case made it to the US Supreme Court
Baseball and the media were ruthless to Flood, who was accused of trying to bankrupt teams and ruin baseball. This destroyed his baseball career, but his sacrifices paved the way for players to have some freedom from their teams and the creation of free agency in US sport.
Rose Robinson's courage and political knowledge prevented her from having the athletic career she deserved. Growing up poor in Chicago, her drive and compassion led her to excel in track and in her career as a social worker, the latter leading her to move to Cleveland, where she
became heavily involved in the civil rights movement and the Congress for Racial Equality. During her actions with CORE, she was assaulted and injured numerous times, but still kept her spirit of resistance. Her drive led her to a national championship in the high jump in 1958, &
a spot on the national team. The US State Department would organize athletic events around the world with mostly-Black rosters to deflect criticism for Jim Crow laws, and Rose refused to participate. In 1959, she qualified for the national team for the Pan-Am games in her
hometown of Chicago. While competing, she sat during the national anthem, further upsetting the US State Department. Within a year, she was arrested for evading $386 in taxes (~$3k today). She spent the 1960 Olympics in a jail cell.
