From Slaveships to Scholarships

In an era when black athletes are commonly compared to the African slaves Dr. Pinckney attempts to draw a connection to William Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves and Harry Edward's earlier work about the black athletes' integration and segregation issues. Furthermore this book is an attempt to chronicle the past and current history of blacks in sports. This book reads like a hybrid book-part history part sociology and part current issues. Dr. Pinckney captures the rise and slow decline of segregation in college and professional athletics. Dr. Pinckney examines how social and political forces imposed policies of racism and explains the social forces that eventually forced blacks and historical black colleges and universities to accept second class-segregated competition. By some accounts five hundred years ago our African ancestors were running from the slave catcher and slave ships to avoid slavery; however today the descendants of slaves are still running. In fact they are running jumping shooting baskets and catching odd-shaped balls for their masters. Sporting events such as track and field football and basketball are mainly dominated by blacks. On any given Saturday afternoon at majority-white institutions the black athlete can be found entertaining not only their immediate white master but their white masters in terms of the disproportionate number of white fans including faculty staff and college administrators. This in itself has predated far too many black athletes to slavery and the conditions of modern-day slavery at the hand of athletics. Truly sports in America today as we know it has psychologically damaged the black athlete.