Legacy of African American Resistance and Activism Through Sport

"In recent years, there has been increased attention garnered towards activism in sport within the United States (U.S.). In 2016, Colin Kaepernick's activist act of taking a knee during the National Anthem before National Football League (NFL) games sparked a nationwide debate on the intersection of sports, race, and politics. Kaepernick's actions were a part of a long lineage of activism in and through sport (Brown, 2020; Bryant, 2018; Cooper, Macaulay, & Rodriguez, 2017; Cooper, Mallery, & Macaulay, 2020; Edwards, 1969, 2016a, 2016b, 2018; Hartmann, 1996, 2009; Henderson, 2013; Miller & Wiggins, 2003; Moore, 2017; Wiggins, 1997, 2004, 2018; Wiggins & Miller, 2003; Zirin, 2009). Prior accounts of African American activism in and through sport has been limited in the following eight areas: a) primarily focused on one type of activism (symbolic protests/boycotts), b) a lack of differentiation between activism and borderline activist actions (e.g., agency, pioneering, and advocacy), c) a lack of emphasis on hybrid resistance, d) a focus on athletes and teams versus sportspersons (a range of individuals connected to sport such as media, scholars, business leaders, community members, e