Overview
Sport has long been a stage where identity is contested, visibility is earned, and social change takes root. In Boston, the Black athletic body has historically challenged the city’s self image as a beacon of liberalism. Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism interprets this contested history through the lives and experiences of African American athletes who used their talent as a vehicle for social justice. Editors Robert Cvornyek and Douglas Stark, along with the volume’s contributors, spotlight figures such as Kittie Knox, Louise Stokes, and Medina Dixon—athletes who confronted and navigated Boston’s racial boundaries across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their biographical portraits draw from stories rooted in Boston’s Black neighborhoods, illuminating the struggles, triumphs, and enduring cultural significance of these community shaping figures. In recounting how these athletes influenced racial identity and cultural expression, the book demonstrates how their legacies continue to challenge perceptions of Boston and reveal sport’s power to expose inequity and inspire transformation.
Full Product Details
Author: Robert Cvornyek ,
Douglas Stark ,
Steven Apostolov ,
Lane Demas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint: Lexington Books
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9781666909067
ISBN 10: 1666909068
Pages: 314
Publication Date: 28 May 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
""The volume is notable for essays covering athletes in lesser-studied sports, such as cycling, golf, and crew, along with baseball, football, track, and boxing. All of the essays are well-researched and well-cited, and each contains a bibliography that will be helpful for scholars seeking to expand their knowledge of Black sports stars in general and those in Boston in particular."" --Choice ""Boston's Black Athletes is essential reading for those interested in gaining insight into the role of race and sport in one of America's most historically important cities. Through highly detailed, compelling, and thoroughly researched stories on individual Black athletes since the era of Reconstruction, the complex nature of sport in segregated and often racially volatile Boston is fully uncovered and clearly delineated."" --David K. Wiggins, George Mason University ""Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism is a historically rich text that excavates experiences, achievements, and impacts of Black sportspersons connected to Boston and the greater New England region. A unique and appealing aspect of the text is the coverage of Black sportspersons' contributions in a wide range of sports including basketball, hockey, football, rodeo, track and field, soccer, golf, rowing, boxing, and cycling. The analysis of local, regional, national, and international resonance of Black sportspersons is insightful and inspiring. The collection of contributors from diverse backgrounds and the intentional focus on both Black men and women across a range of sports is laudable and signifies a notable shift in sport historiographic research. This historiographic contribution debunks myths that erase Black athletic feats from the records and advances our collective understanding of the legacy of social progress has deep roots in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. This legacy has and will continue to resonate from the local level to the global level."" --Joseph N. Cooper, University of Massachusetts, Boston
The volume is notable for essays covering athletes in lesser-studied sports, such as cycling, golf, and crew, along with baseball, football, track, and boxing. All of the essays are well-researched and well-cited, and each contains a bibliography that will be helpful for scholars seeking to expand their knowledge of Black sports stars in general and those in Boston in particular. * Choice * Boston's Black Athletes is essential reading for those interested in gaining insight into the role of race and sport in one of America's most historically important cities. Through highly detailed, compelling, and thoroughly researched stories on individual Black athletes since the era of Reconstruction, the complex nature of sport in segregated and often racially volatile Boston is fully uncovered and clearly delineated. -- David K. Wiggins, George Mason University Boston’s Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism is a historically rich text that excavates experiences, achievements, and impacts of Black sportspersons connected to Boston and the greater New England region. A unique and appealing aspect of the text is the coverage of Black sportspersons’ contributions in a wide range of sports including basketball, hockey, football, rodeo, track and field, soccer, golf, rowing, boxing, and cycling. The analysis of local, regional, national, and international resonance of Black sportspersons is insightful and inspiring. The collection of contributors from diverse backgrounds and the intentional focus on both Black men and women across a range of sports is laudable and signifies a notable shift in sport historiographic research. This historiographic contribution debunks myths that erase Black athletic feats from the records and advances our collective understanding of the legacy of social progress has deep roots in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. This legacy has and will continue to resonate from the local level to the global level. -- Joseph N. Cooper, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Author Information
Robert Cvornyek is professor emeritus of history at Rhode Island College. Douglas Stark is sports museum consultant in Barrington, Rhode Island.
