Sports

By: Lisa L. Rapalyea

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Sports

The history of black women in American sports tells of triumphs over adversity in many forms; stereotypes, sexism, racism, segregation, and poverty among them. The remarkable athletic talent that was historically displayed came with immense courage, focus, and perseverance in the face of societal obstacles. This particular history tells of the black woman's journey from slavery to emancipation, to the fight for integration, and to the implementation of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act in the 1970s. In addition to domestic changes, international sociopolitical events also played a role in helping black athletes gain opportunities in the athletic arena. Although considerable progress has been made, there are still many obstacles for black women to overcome before they can enjoy full participation and access in many areas of sports, both as athletes and in sports-related careers.

From Emancipation to the 1940s

Black women demonstrated exceptional athletic talent long before they had opportunities to participate in organized sports or organizations that would enable them to showcase their gifts. During slavery, the only expression of athletic talent among black women occurred in early folk games (such as footraces) and dance, when the slaves were given temporary respite from their labors after evening meals or on holidays that allowed time off from work. Other occasions of athletic or physical expression included fairs, weddings, and funerals. Organized athletic competitions were not accessible to these female slaves.

Although slavery officially ended in 1865, barriers to participation in athletic events for black women persisted. A notable barrier was the hypocritical male perception of women, a view shared by many women consistent with the Victorian era. On the one hand, women were expected to do physical labor such as farm work and manual laundering, and to bear children and care for them, while on the other hand it was deemed unfeminine for women to run in a footrace or be competitive in a physically challenging sports event. There was also the expectation that women would be cheerleaders, bestowing accolades on men for their athletic endeavors rather than competing themselves. Some of these stereotypes still persist. Certain sports (such as football) are considered to be unfeminine and lacking in graceful movements. In addition, some early (and even modern) women athletes had their sexual orientation questioned. Related to this Victorian view of femininity was the notion of female “frailty,” the belief that too much strenuous exercise or participation in athletic competition would affect reproductive function, possibly causing sterility. However, with respect to black women, appropriate feminine behavior and the concern of “frailty” were not emphasized as much as they were for their white counterparts, mainly because of black women's strenuous physical duties during the slavery period.

In the late 1800s, changes in societal attitudes regarding physical activity for women began to occur. The medical community started to support the idea that physical activity could be healthy, but limits as to how much activity was deemed acceptable still continued. The emergence of the bicycle in 1888 had a major impact on changing these societal views, enabling women to engage in physical activity. The bicycle was also perceived by women as a device that was fun and provided more independence. With the exception of competitive cycling, it was viewed as acceptable and healthy behavior for women. The bicycle also introduced new fashion for the more physically active women. The long skirts that women wore at the time ended up tangled in the wheel spokes. To counter this dangerous limitation, women began wearing loose-fitting trouser-like garments known as “bloomers,” which brought about the term “Bloomer Girls” for the women who wore them. The gradual acceptance of bloomers and other garments such as knickerbockers and split skirts allowed for greater freedom and more physical activity, especially on the tennis and basketball courts. Nevertheless, these activities were still considered to be unladylike for the times.

During this period, African Americans gained access to land ownership and began to accumulate personal wealth, thus easing some economic limitations. As a result, black women (as with white middle- and upper-class women) were able to enjoy more leisure time in which to participate in recreational activities. Their new economic status also allowed them access to equipment and facilities previously unavailable, especially in tennis and golf. By 1890, a fair number of black families owned tennis courts, which in turn influenced support for the sport at historically black colleges and universities for both men and women.

While some black women may have had the economic resources to pursue tennis or golf, the reality of Jim Crow policies until the 1950s made it difficult for black athletes to join sports teams or organizations such as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA), United States Golf Association (USGA), the American Bowling Congress (ABC), and the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC). Black women in particular suffered the double jeopardy of the race- and gender-based exclusionary rules of these organizations.

The result was that several black athletes developed their own sporting organizations and teams, such as the American Tennis Association (ATA) of Washington, DC, the United Golfers Association (UGA), and the National Negro Bowling Association (NNBA). In addition to the black sporting organizations, there were other groups that provided black women athletes with opportunities to engage in athletic activities. Among them was the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), which offered swimming and basketball facilities and equipment, and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which played a pivotal role in increasing the popularity of women's track and field in the early 1920s.

By the end of World War I, economic and social changes provided new opportunities for both women and African Americans. Womens college sports became more accessible and included track and field, tennis, basketball, bowling, rowing, baseball, field hockey, and croquet. Other new opportunities for women arose in the 1920s when the federal government began promoting physical activity and sports for the general public, including a Women's Division. The philosophy that dominated this program focused on simply encouraging women to engage in physical activity (not necessarily sports), without emphasis on skill achievement or competition; in other words, it still stressed ladylike behavior. Female athletes were expected to show grace, form, and beauty, which was considered essential to the socially accepted feminine image. This feminine ideal for middle-to upper-class white women dominated women's collegiate athletics at the time, and was expected for black women as well. Thus the acceptable sports for women—those that portrayed the expected feminine image—were tennis, golf, and, with modifications, basketball. Basketball in particular would later open the door for women, allowing them to participate in other team sports.

The 1940s Bring Changes

The 1940s was a pivotal decade for women's sports. Along with the increase in athletic opportunities, there were significant domestic and international sociopolitical changes that impacted the future black women in sports. During this period, bowling became a hugely popular recreational activity within the black community because of its accessibility and reasonable cost. In 1940, the NNBA held the first women's bowling tournament. The singles event was won by Edna Conner and the all-events title by Sara Surdivant. By the 1950s, bowling was the sport of choice for the black American woman.

YWCA baseball team, c. 1920. The YWCA was one group that gave black women opportunities for athletic activities, offering facilities and equipment for swimming and basketball as well as baseball.

Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

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In 1947, a major breakthrough occurred in professional sports that helped to provide new opportunities to black women athletes. The breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB) by Jackie Robinson resulted in a shortage of male players in the Negro National League, providing opportunities for a few black women to play professional baseball. The history of black women in baseball, however, can be traced back to as early as 1867 with the formation of the Dolly Vardens, which may have been the first women's professional sports team in the United States. Wearing red calico dresses as uniforms, the Dolly Vardens were considered to be more theatrical than a true sports team. Almost a century later, a few black women would emerge once again on the professional level in baseball.

In 1953, Marcenia Lyle Alberga, known professionally as Toni Stone, was the first woman in the Negro Leagues and the first to play professional men's baseball. She played second base for the Indianapolis Clowns (a baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters), and was recognized and well respected as a ballplayer. She also played for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1954. Stone's success paved the way for two more women to be hired in the Negro Leagues—Connie Morgan and Mamie “Peanut” Johnson. Before joining the Negro Leagues, Morgan had played for a women's baseball team, the North Philadelphia Honey Drippers. Johnson, a pitcher, was nicknamed “Peanut” by a male player who dismissed her athletic abilities due to her small stature and gender; she responded by striking him out. Stone, Morgan, and Johnson were not the only women in professional men's baseball. Effa Manley, wife of the owner of the Negro League's Newark Eagles, is the only recognized woman to have managed a professional men's baseball team.

While World War II demonstrated that women had more than enough capability and talent to take on traditional male tasks, the view that too much athletic exertion would be harmful to women still persisted into the 1950s and 1960s. In spite of the persistence of these views, female athletes (including black women) were gaining acceptance in American society. Opportunities to compete increased in tennis, track and field, golf, swimming, basketball, and softball. Efforts were made to avoid exploiting female athletes, which was occurring among male athletes, by espousing different values—emphasizing participation for its own sake, encouraging social interaction, and touting the educational benefits rather than material rewards and recognition. These values would persist through the next two decades and into the 1970s.

Two other sports began to attract the attention of black women during this time period, fencing and figure skating. However, neither of these sports were easily accessible to black women. To pursue fencing, a black woman had to be a member of private fencing club, such as the Alcazar Fencing Club (Ohio) and Horizons Club (New York), or enrolled in a college program where fencing had a strong tradition. It was not until 1951 that the Amateur Fencer's League of America (AFLA) accepted its first black female member, Sophronia Pierce Stent.

Figure skating was even less accessible to black women than fencing. Despite the odds, Mabel Fairbanks captured the spotlight in 1951 when she became a professional figure skater. Although barred from ice rinks, figure skating clubs, and ice shows because of her race, Fairbanks managed to become an accomplished figure skater by creating her own ice shows and touring nationally and internationally. Because Fairbanks was prevented from joining a skating club, she was ineligible to compete in official amateur events, which in turn prevented her from qualifying for the Olympics. Nevertheless, Fairbanks's contribution to this sport was the development of many of the spin movements that remain common in skating. Rather than naming them for her, as other movements were named for the skaters who first used them, they are known simply as spin variations. Fairbanks continued to contribute to this sport as a teacher and coach. She coached many successful skaters, including Michelle McCladdie and Richard Ewell, the first black figure skating pair to win a national title in 1972. In 1997, as recognition of her sixty-year contribution to the sport, Fairbanks became the first African American inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Sociopolitical Events and Olympic Improvement: 1950s and 1960s

Major sociopolitical events of the early to mid-1950s changed sports for black athletes. First, desegregation of the armed forces resulted in the integration of sports programs in the military, making quality training available to black servicemen. Second, in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of African Americans in public schools was unconstitutional. As a result, better physical education programs became available to young black students. Third, international incidents—the seizure of the Suez Canal by England, France, and Israel, as well as the Soviet invasion of Hungary—resulted in the withdrawal of several countries from the 1956 Olympic Games. The withdrawals provided an opportunity for more black athletes to participate in the games with great success. Black athletes won thirty-one medals out of a total of seventy-four won by the United States teams. Of the thirty-one medals, six were earned by black women, all in track and field.

In addition to the successful showing of the United States team, the 1956 Olympic Games also spotlighted the first black head coach in the history of black women's sports. Nell Jackson of Tuskegee Institute, a former member of the 1948 Olympic team, coached the U.S. track and field team. Jackson later coached the 1972 Olympic team. However, the small number of American female athletes competing on the Olympic stage, and their overall lack of success, became a concern of several sports organizations, as well as the U.S. State Department. As a result, in 1958 the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) formed the Women's Advisory Board to improve women's athletics, a move that provided the impetus for the growing success of black female athletes, including that of track and field star Wilma Rudolph.

The 1960s saw the continued growth and popularity of women's athletics and propelled several black female athletes into the spotlight, as well as into several less popular sports. Lacrosse and field hockey, which had very little black participation, attracted attention, thanks to Tina Sloane-Green. In 1969 Sloane-Green became the first black woman to earn a spot on the U.S. Women's Lacrosse team. Not only was she a top lacrosse athlete, but she was also an excellent field hockey player who made the U.S. National Field Hockey team that same year. Although field hockey is an internationally popular sport, it was not of great interest to athletes and administrators of black colleges in the United States. The few black women who made an impact in this sport had to go to historically white colleges for the opportunity to play field hockey. The earliest known black woman field hockey player is Ketura “Kitty” Waterman Cox, who attended New York University in the 1940s.

The 1970s: Title IX Changes Everything

The 1970s represented a decade of achievement in various sports. In 1971, while bowling was concentrated primarily in the Midwest and eastern parts of the country, Wanda Bruce of Los Angeles became the first women's NBA (formerly the NNBA) winner from an area outside of those regions. Fencing also enjoyed the renewed interest of black women fencers, which had lagged since the 1950s. In 1971 Ruth White became the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) national champion in the foil event. She also was the first black woman to appear on the cover of American Fencing magazine and, in 1972, was the first black female to make the U.S. Olympic team. Another foil fencer, Nikki Franke, became champion of the AFLA in 1975. Franke later made the 1980 U.S. Olympic fencing team, only to lose her opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games due to the boycott by the United States in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Despite this disappointment, Franke later coached the Temple University women's fencing team to four consecutive Final Fours from 1981 to 1984.

Another sport was brought into the spotlight during the 1976 Olympics, as Anita DeFrantz became the first black athlete to medal in a rowing event, earning the bronze. In 1980, she was also awarded the Olympic Order Medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for contributions to the sport of rowing. Then in 1986, DeFrantz became the first American woman appointed to the IOC. She later became the first female vice president of the IOC (1997–2001), and in 2004 she was a member of the Executive Committee of the USOC.

Although these are notable sports accomplishments, the most significant sports-related milestone for women occurred in 1972, with the implementation of Title IX, an educational amendment to the Civil Rights Act. As federal law, Title IX made it illegal for any program or institution that received federal funding to discriminate on the basis of gender. Although black participation in sports had gained momentum after World War II, it took the implementation of Title IX to have a major impact on women's involvement in sports. This law provided unprecedented opportunities for female athletes to gain access to athletic teams, jobs, and scholarships, which led to the success of the so-called Title IX Babies—those women who grew up after the law was passed and were thus able to enjoy greater opportunities and better training. As a result of Title IX, by the late 1970s athletic scholarships for women athletes had increased. However, financial inequity in sports—scholarships, professional salaries or winnings, and endorsements—continued to be the experience of the female athlete into the early twenty-first century. The increase in scholarship allowed for growth of female athletic involvement, but gender inequities still persisted, and controversy regarding Title IX inaccurately suggested that the law harms male athletic programs. Title IX impacted public high schools and historically white colleges as well as the HBCUs, forcing all educational institutions that receive federal funding to significantly improve athletic programs for women, regardless of ethnicity. In addition, intramural sports and physical education programs became gender integrated, providing men with more exposure to women's athletic ability.

Olympic Boycotts Mar the 1980s

Responding to increasing numbers of state-sponsored athletes from other countries competing in the Olympics and the perceived advantage those athletes enjoyed, the U.S. Congress passed a bill in 1978, known as the Amateur Sports Act, to provide more support for American athletes. Despite the increased support, a few international incidents in the 1980s resulted in some setbacks for American athletes. The 1980 Olympics, held in Moscow, were boycotted by the United States in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and many American athletes lost their chance to compete. For some, it was the last opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

The Soviet Union, in turn, boycotted the 1984 Olympics, protesting the absence of several countries in the 1980 games. The absence of Soviet athletes contributed to an impressive showing by black American athletes. The United States teams earned a total of 174 medals, of which black athletes won 60. Of these, twenty-nine were awarded to black women, nineteen in track and field, six in basketball, three in volleyball, and one in fencing. Included among these Olympians is a post-Title IX standout, Lynette Woodard, who captained the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to its first gold medal. In 1985, Woodard became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters, remaining with them for two years. Another member of the same Olympic team who also benefited from Title IX was Cheryl Miller from the University of Southern California (USC). Miller noted in a Sports Illustrated interview that “without Title IX, I wouldn't be here.” At the time, Miller was considered to be the best player in women's basketball, and she helped to galvanize its popularity. She was the lead scorer of the 1984 Olympic squad. She also led USC to two consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships, achieving such an outstanding basketball record that she was inducted into both the Women's Sport Hall of Fame (1991) and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1995).

While some athletes enjoyed success in the 1984 Olympic Games, the first internationally ranked black gymnast was not as fortunate. Diane Durham was prevented from competing in the 1984 Olympics due to an injury that occurred just before competition began. Gymnastics, like tennis and golf, has not been a readily accessible sport for African Americans. It is expensive due to the cost of lessons and is not widely available in the public schools. Both of these factors limited exposure to and recruitment of black athletes, and no other black gymnast would emerge into the national spotlight until the 1990s.

Figure skating gained popularity once again in the 1980s. In 1986, a new African American star emerged to compete with success in events that had been denied to Mabel Fairbanks. Debi Thomas became the first black woman to win a senior national championship in figure skating. She also was the first to win a World Championship and became the first black athlete to medal in any Winter Olympics when she won the bronze at the 1988 Games.

The 1990s and Beyond

The 1990s showcased growth both in accomplishments and availability of sport opportunities for the Title IX Babies. Among notable accomplishments was Jackie Joyner-Kersee winning the heptathlon in the 1992 Olympic Games. Another achievement was seen in gymnastics. In the 1996 Olympic Games, the U.S. gymnastics team included Dominique Dawes, who was the first black American woman to earn a team gold medal and an individual medal when she won bronze in the floor exercises. However, one of the most memorable triumphs in women's sports was the 1999 victory of the U.S. Women's Soccer team in the World Cup. Included on the team, and also credited with critical saves that helped to win the Cup, was goalie Brianna Scurry, nicknamed “The Wall.” Scurry is now regarded as a role model for young girls who want to play soccer. The success of the women's World Cup team has given hope for the growth and diversity of soccer. Since the World Cup victory, Howard University became the first historically black college with a division one women's team to compete in the NCAA.

While some successes were found at the Olympics and in college sports, the existence and growth of professional women's sports organizations were not very apparent prior to 1996. This changed with the development of two new professional women's sport leagues, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1996 and the Women's Professional Football League (WPFL) in 1999. In particular, the WPFL broke into a sport arena primarily viewed to be male. The WPFL started with six teams, serving as a renewed effort to bring this sport to women after an abortive attempt in the 1960s. Unlike basketball, there is a scarcity of women with specific skills for football. Instead, the players come from a wide range of sports backgrounds, having played softball, lacrosse, hockey, and track and field, to name a few. Even so, there were plans in 2004 to continue expanding the league. Although football was traditionally unavailable to women, there was widespread interest to participate in the WPFL, even to the point of paying a fee to try out and to cover the cost of equipment. As an example of women's enduring desire and interest to participate in sports, Charlotte Chambers was a particularly unique member of the league. A seventy-year-old great-grandmother who never had the chance as a young woman to play sports, Chambers ended up playing for the Orlando Starz football team as a reserve safety.

By the start of the twenty-first century, the visibility of black female athletes continued to grow. The impact of Title IX became more evident in the caliber of athletic talent to hit the competitive stage, mainly due to increased access to quality training and facilities. With the improved quality of women athletes and the growing popularity of women's professional and amateur sports, the financial equity for women in sports also began to change in a more positive direction. Marion Jones (track and field) and Chamique Holdsclaw (basketball), both talented athletes, managed to earn endorsements equal to those of male athletes and higher than their female predecessors. Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams also scored record-breaking endorsement deals with Reebok and others. This was a marked change and a possible sign as to the potential earning power of elite female athletes in the future.

Title IX has also been essential for increasing the diversity of sports in which women can participate. While the range of available sports is smaller for black athletes, they have gained ground in less traditional sports, such as volleyball, fencing, martial arts, soccer, figure skating, and gymnastics. One arena that received renewed interest by black women consists of the throwing events in track and field. Three women received notice in the early 2000s: Christina Tolson of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), ranked eighth in the nation in shot put in 2000; Jessica Crosby (UCLA), ranked fourth in the nation for women's shot put in 2002; and Jamine Moton of Clemson University, who was the NCAA champion in the women's hammer throw in 2003.

Bobsled, a sport with traditionally very few African American participants, also was thrust into the spotlight. At the Winter Olympics in 2002, Vonetta Flowers, a former track and field athlete, became the first black woman to win a gold medal in the women's bobsled. In addition, Flowers and her teammate, Jill Bakken, received the 2002 U.S. Olympic Committee Team of the Year.

Boxing, another traditionally male sport, began to diversify with respect to gender. In the late 1990s, black women boxers emerged; most notably the daughters of three boxing legends were leading the way. J'Marie Moore, daughter of Archie Moore, made her debut in the ring in 1997, while Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, the daughter of Joe Frazier, fought Laila Ali, daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, in 2001.

Jackie Tonawanda, shown here in 1975, was one of only three women to get a professional boxing license in New York City. She fought a man in Madison Square Garden and won.

© Bettye Lane

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Although there continued to be progress in the number of sports opening up to black women, there were still many in which they had never participated. Among those sports were the extreme sports (snowboarding and skateboarding), horse racing, cycling, and motor sports, to name a few. Interest in those and other sports will occur only if young children, and girls in particular, are exposed to them at an early age. For black women, especially those in urban areas, significantly fewer opportunities existed, compared with white suburban youngsters. Fortunately, some programs existed to increase exposure, accessibility, and opportunities for the urban and disadvantaged youth. Organizations such as the Black Women Sports Foundation, founded in 1992, provided exposure to golf, tennis, lacrosse, soccer, and fencing for black girls while promoting academic excellence. The First Tee program, run by the World Golf Foundation, “provide[d] affordable access to golf for everyone,” including African American youth. For tennis, there was the Match Point Foundation, which received national praise for its work. Figure Skating in Harlem was a pioneering program that promoted figure skating. The Inner-City Games Foundation promoted various sports and games, including chess. With the success of such organizations, the future of diversity in sports for women looks promising.

Participation in sports has helped many people open doors to other opportunities. Lucy Diggs Slowe, the first black American National champion in any sport (tennis, 1917), later became the first black American woman dean at Howard University. After Inez Patterson's collegiate basketball and tennis career was over, she continued to break color barriers in other organizations. Patterson eventually became a physical education instructor for the New York YWCA, organized several athletic clubs, and was appointed the national program director for the ATA in 1938. Wilma Rudolph of track and field fame later became a teacher and started a foundation to benefit disadvantaged children. After Cheryl Miller's basketball career ended in injury, she became one of the few black women sports commentators on television. C. Vivian Stringer became one of the best-known female coaches as the first head coach of women's basketball at Rutgers University in 1995, and she achieved an historical first for women coaches by negotiating a salary higher than those of both the men's basketball coach and the football coach. These pioneering women serve as important role models for young black women. Even though some doors have been opened, the overall progress of black women in athletic administrative positions as well as careers in the sports industry has been slow, despite the sports industry's continued growth and significant role in the U.S. economy.

The Journey Ahead

Arthur Ashe entitled his book documenting the journey of the black American athlete A Hard Road to Glory, and with good reason. Breaking the color barrier or overcoming negative expectations has come with a price for black athletes, regardless of their sex. While trying to excel, many had to deal with racism and were subjected to hate mail, threats, and racial slurs. To make matters worse, some black athletes had to endure criticism by the black community as well, if they were viewed as not being strong advocates for other black athletes. The lesson to be learned from the unique journey of the black woman athlete is that, while there have been improvements, the journey is not over. Although the coming years hold promise for future generations, the road ahead remains challenging. Areas such as sports journalism, administration, management, and coaching have been lacking representation by black women for too long. Young black women of the future have the opportunity to be pioneers in their own right—in these sports-related areas and as athletes in sports that have yet to have a “first” black female representative.

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