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Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union deplored the treatment of African Americans by the U.S. government as proof of hypocrisy in the American promises of freedom and equality. This probing history examines government attempts to manipulate international perceptions of U.S. race relations during the Cold War by sending African American athletes abroad on goodwill tours and in international competitions as cultural ambassadors and visible symbols of American values._x000B__x000B_Damion L. Thomas follows the State Department's efforts from 1945 to 1968 to showcase prosperous African American athletes including Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, and the Harlem Globetrotters as the preeminent citizens of the African Diaspora rather than as victims of racial oppression. With athletes in baseball, track and field, and basketball, the government relied on figures whose fame carried the desired message to countries where English was little understood. However, eventually African American athletes began to provide counter-narratives to State Department claims of American exceptionalism, most notably with Tommie Smith and John Carlos's famous black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics._x000B__x000B_Exploring the geopolitical significance of racial integration in sports during the early days of the Cold War, this book looks at the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations' attempts to utilize sport to overcome hostile international responses to the violent repression of the civil rights movement in the United States. Highlighting how African American athletes responded to significant milestones in American racial justice such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Thomas surveys the shifting political landscape during this period as African American athletes increasingly resisted being used in State Department propaganda and began to use sports to challenge continued oppression._x000B_

Samir Meghelli: As a community museum that is part of a national museum complex, our research and community collaboration have continually demonstrated the extent to which national narratives about American history are often lacking in the kind of rich, local detail that can help illuminate how history is actually made—and by extension, how each of us can contribute to making meaningful change in our communities, society, etc. [...]democracy is not a settled decision but an ongoing challenge that depends on engagement and action to sustain itself. See PDF] Damion L. Thomas: The biggest gap in the public's understanding of American history is how profoundly race has shaped all aspects of American life, including housing, foreign policy, infrastructure planning, emergency relief management, cultural production, and voting rights. In most cases, that presents no dilemma or conflict, but in a few areas, notably scientific subjects like human evolution and climate change and American history topics like race, gender, and the military actions of the United States, public presentations of current research can make the general public and politicians uncomfortable.

James Michener, the noted Pulitzer Prize–winning author, was an acclaimed writer whose work reflected his conviction that writers should commit themselves to addressing social issues because they were the “conscience” of the nation. To that end, in his 1975 nonfiction workSports in America,Michener revealed how a Harlem Globetrotters game forced him to reconsider his long-standing support for the notion that African American success in sports alleviated racial inequality. Michener began the chapter “Sports and Upward Escalation” by acknowledging that he had been taught and readily accepted the argument that sports were “the salvation of the black race

Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis convened a historic meeting at the Hotel Roosevelt on December 3, 1943, between the Major League Baseball club owners and the publishers of eight leading African American newspapers. Heretofore, African American newspapers had waged an unsuccessful campaign to force Major League Baseball to allow African Americans to compete for positions on Major League teams. One of the newspapers’ most ardent protesters, Sam Lacy of thePittsburgh Courier,convinced the commissioner to grant the African American press an extensive audience after years of being rebuffed. Why did Commissioner Landis agree to the meeting? There is no evidence

With two of its best players sidelined with injuries, the team representing the United States lost to the Soviet Union—62 to 37—on January 28 before twenty-four thousand fans at the 1959 World Basketball Tournament in Santiago, Chile. After five minutes of play, the score was tied, 4–4. Then the Soviets gained control after inserting Yan Krumins, their seven-foot-two center from Latvia. His five quick points helped his team to a 25–14 halftime advantage. The Soviets capitalized on precise outside shooting and American foul trouble during the second half to cruise to an easy victory. The Soviet

There were several unsuccessful proposed efforts to organize African American athletes to boycott the Olympic Games because of the persistence of racial discrimination. The outspoken African American activist Dick Gregory in 1963 unsuccessfully proposed a boycott of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. A year later, the idea was resurrected. However, the new proposal came from an unlikely source: Mal Whitfield, the conservative Republican and former Olympic track champion. Whitfield had repeatedly toured internationally as a goodwill ambassador who embodied the State Department’s emphasis on racial progress. At the time of his suggestion, Whitfield was employed as a health and athletic adviser

In 1956 the State Department sent the University of San Francisco Dons men’s basketball team on a summertime tour of Latin America. At the time of the tour, the Dons had won fifty-five consecutive games and had amassed an incredible 57–1 record on the way to back-to-back NCAA championships. The team was led by their All-American center, Bill Russell, a six-foot-ten African American, whose shot-blocking and defensive skills were the cornerstone of the team’s domination. At the time, conventional wisdom held that defense was a time to rest until your team had the ball again, so most players did

This chapter focuses on the Harlem Globetrotters as Cold Warriors between 1947 and 1954. This is an important moment because prior to the passage of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the State Department was in the unenviable position of trying to defend segregation while stressing racial progress. Moreover, the politics of symbolism associated with the Globetrotters' tours was designed to give legitimacy to existing racial inequalities in American society by stressing “progress” during the early Cold War era, despite the social, political, and legal barriers that hindered African American advancement. The symbol of the successful yet segregated athlete allowed the government to argue that segregation was not an impediment to the advancement of individual African Americans.

The use of sport as a tool of U.S. foreign policy did not end after the Mexico City Olympic protests. The United States as well as other global powers continued to utilize sport as a means to solidify friendships, antagonize rivals, and advance claims about the viability of their political, social, and economic systems. Two of the most widely used tactics to express displeasure with other nations were boycotts and the denial of visas for potential competitors. Conversely, sport continued to be viewed as a means to initiate and foster positive relationships. In this regard, some of the most widely