Sports Influence The Ongoing Civil Rights Movement

Brandon Tam Mrs. Clausnitzer Am. Lit. Period 1 4/10/15 Progress of Major Sports Sports influence the ongoing civil rights movement by changing the ideals of sports fans across the nation. During the period of racial segregation of America in the 1930’s, the nation refused to accept anything out of the ordinary such as color and sexual orientation. All sports figures in the 1930’s were white as no matter the type of discrimination, in order to have true equality in place where the best and most talented play, no player can be judged based on their sexual orientation or race, only on their ability to preform. Despite the many examples of discrimination still present today, major sports has shown a significant amount of progress since the†¦show more content†¦Today, modern sports fans do not consider the significance of the first black player, who broke the color barrier similar to Jackie Robinson. Fritz Pollard ended the many years of segregation in the NFL as he started a new trend of black players in the league. About 20 years later, the p rogress of African Americans in the NFL increases to 30% and now it is more than twice the amount. Modern day fans today, idolize African American players and their ability to make spudtacular plays on the field. Before 1946, kids would be foolish to imagine themselves as an African American player and now, kids of all races wish to play exactly like the African American superstars when they grow up. During an interview of Jim Brown, former professional running back, he talks about how he was made fun of on the field as player. He has memories of fans who would aggravate him by calling him names and telling him to dance like a fool. To embrace it, Jim responded to the people who told him his fame will increase if he would dance by simply saying â€Å"I don’t really dance†. This resulted in The influence and help from players such as Jim who evolve the sport into a more suitable environment for players to feel comfortable and more importantly accepted. Similar to the NF L, many examples of racism are found in the NBA, yet unlike the players who responded to the situations by holding back their emotions and opinions players