Synopses & Reviews
The campaign for racial equality in sports has both reflected and affected the campaign for racial equality in the United States. Some of the most significant and publicized stories in this campaign in the twentieth century have happened in sports, including, of course, Jackie Robinson in baseball; Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos in track; Arthur Ashe in tennis; and Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali in boxing. Long after the full integration of college and professional athletics, race continues to play a major role in sports. Not long ago, sportswriters and sportscasters ignored racial issues. They now contribute to the publicandrsquo;s evolving racial attitudes on issues both on and off the field, ranging from integration to self-determination to masculinity.
From Jack Johnson to LeBron James examines the intersection of sports, race, and the media in the twentieth century and beyond. The essays are linked by a number of questions, including: How did the black and white media differ in content and context in their reporting of these stories? How did the media acknowledge race in their stories? Did the media recognize these stories as historically significant? Considering how media coverage has evolved over the years, the essays begin with the racially charged reporting of Jack Johnsonandrsquo;s reign as heavyweight champion and carry up to the present, covering the media narratives surrounding the Michael Vick dogfighting case in a supposedly post-racial era and the mediaandrsquo;s handling of LeBron Jamesandrsquo;s announcement to leave Cleveland for Miami.
Review
"Lamb's detailed and annotated research provides an in-depth examination of an important step in the integration of baseball, a step that, up until now, has not received the coverage it deserves. Of interest both to baseball fans and social historians."and#8212;Booklist
Review
Lamb tells what Robinson faced in 1946 in segregated Floridaand#8212;six weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution."and#8212;Dermot McEvoy, Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A]n important contribution to American Studies."and#8212;Choice
Review
"In his richly sourced examination of Robinson's first spring training, Lamb puts readers on the back of a hot Greyhound bus as it makes its way through the Jim Crow South of the mid-1940s. . . . Throughout the book Lamb carefully documents who wrote what, analyzing the black press, mainstream dailies, the Daily Worker, a national newspaper for communists, and even southern newspapers. This comprehensiveness in sources is unprecedented in examinations of press coverage of Robinson's life or career, making it a good investment for researchers in the field based on its footnotes alone. The book also deserves credit for turning attention to the black sportswriters who, as the author writes, 'faced their own color line.'"and#8212;American Journalism
Review
and#8220;Lamb does an excellent job of setting this pivotal episode in baseball history in the larger context of race relations of the South, providing a number of graphic examples of violence against blacks in order to emphasize the dangerous world that Robinson and Wright were entering when they arrived in Florida as new members of the Montreal Royals, Brooklynand#8217;s main minor league team.and#8221;and#8212;Michael Cocchiarale, Aethlon
Review
"Blackout is the most complete analysis of Robinson's first spring training available as Lamb has probed the press reports to new depths and in the process revealed another facet of the two America's divided along racial lines. Blackout is also a volume that is essential to any understanding of the events of sixty years ago in Florida and their significance for baseball, for Florida, and for America."and#8212;Richard Crepeau, Sports Literature Association
Review
andldquo;This is quality scholarship that will be of interest to specialists in history, American studies, African American studies, journalism, English, media studies, sociology, and sports studies, among others.andrdquo;andmdash;Trey Strecker, editor of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture and assistant professor in the Department of English at Ball State Universityand#160;
Synopsis
In the spring of 1946, following the defeat of Hitlerand#8217;s Germany, America found itself still struggling with the subtler but no less insidious tyrannies of racism and segregation at home. In the midst of it all, Jackie Robinson, a full year away from breaking major league baseballand#8217;s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was undergoing a harrowing dress rehearsal for integrationand#8212;his first spring training as a minor league prospect with the Montreal Royals, Brooklynand#8217;s AAA team. In
Blackout, Chris Lamb tells what happened during these six weeks in segregated Floridaand#8212;six weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution.
Blackout chronicles Robinsonand#8217;s tremendous ordeal during that crucial spring trainingand#8212;how he struggled on the field and off. The restaurants and hotels that welcomed his white teammates were closed to him, and in one city after another he was prohibited from taking the field. Steeping his story in its complex cultural context, Lamb describes Robinsonand#8217;s determination and anxiety, the reaction of the black and white communities to his appearance, and the unique and influential role of the pressand#8212;mainstream reporting, the alternative black weeklies, and the Communist Daily Workerand#8212;in the integration of baseball. Told here in detail for the first time, this story brilliantly encapsulates the larger history of a man, a sport, and a nation on the verge of great and enduring change.
About the Author
Chris Lamb is a professor of journalism at Indiana Universityandndash;Purdue University at Indianapolis. He is the author of Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball (Nebraska, 2012) and Blackout: The Story of Jackie Robinsonandrsquo;s First Spring Training (Nebraska, 2004), among other books.