Race and Resistance in Boston
A Contested Sports History
Douglas Stark editor Robert Cvornyek editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Nebraska Press
Published:1st Feb '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Boston is a city known for its sports as well as its troubled racial conflict. But generations of Black athletes, teams, sportswriters, and front-office executives have exercised historic influence in Boston over the years as they advocated for racial integration and transformed their sports into modes of racial pride, resistance, and cultural expression. Race and Resistance in Boston goes beyond the familiar topics associated with the city’s premiere professional teams, the Red Sox and the Celtics, to recount the long history of Black sporting culture in the city.
This collection takes a close look at Black Bostonians’ involvement in sports as varied as soccer, cricket, boxing, baseball, golf, tennis, basketball, and hockey—and illuminates the effect of Boston’s desegregation and busing crisis on scholastic athletics in the 1970s and 1980s. With personal reminiscences from former New England Patriot Devin McCourty and journalist Bijan Bayne, as well as research from scholars of sport, Race and Resistance in Boston captures the intersection of Black history and sporting culture in America’s City on a Hill.
"Race and Resistance in Boston has something for every local sports lover who is also conscious about justice. These compelling stories about race, class, and sexuality add to Boston's legacy as a city of deep cultural and sports history."—Louis Moore, Boston Globe
"Race and Resistance in Boston is essential reading for any serious imbiber of sports history to truly comprehend the once-rickety racial underpinning of the modern athletic landscape. Editors Cvornyek and Stark compiled comprehensive essays across a medley of athletic disciplines in this anthology to convey previously little-known aspects of Boston's racial sporting history and more importantly to reveal their lesser-known uplifting impacts to the Black community at large. This is a supremely informative book, very highly recommended."—Charlie Bevis, Bevis Baseball Research
“A must-read for anyone who wants to go deep into the issue of race and sport and how they intersect with society. Focusing on Boston is a powerful and meaningful approach, as it is a perfect microcosm of these issues. . . . Cvornyek and Stark go deep into the subject of how racism affects sport but also show how sport can be used to bring people together across racial and economic divides.”—Richard E. Lapchick, president of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice
ISBN: 9781496232687
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
404 pages