Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete by Bass, Amy (2002) Hardcover

Critical American Studies

by Amy Bass

Jesse Owens. Muhammad Ali. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. All are iconic black athletes, as are Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the two African American track and field medalists who raised black-gloved fists on the victory dais at the Mexico City Olympics and brought all of the roiling American racial politics of the late 1960s to a worldwide television audience. But few of those viewers fully realized what had led to this demonstration-events that included the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., uprisings in American cities, student protests around the world, the rise of the Black Power movement, and decolonization and apartheid in Africa. In this far-reaching account, Amy Bass offers nothing less than a history of the black athlete. Beginning with the racial eugenics discussions of the early twentieth century and their continuing reverberations in popular perceptions of black physical abilities, Bass explores ongoing African American attempts to challenge these stereotypes. In particular, she examines the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization that worked to mobilize black athletes in the 1960s and whose work culminated with the Mexico City protest.Although Tommie Smith and John Carlos were reviled by Olympic officials for their demonstration, Bass traces how their protest has come to be the defining image of the 1968 Games, with lingering effects in the sports world and on American popular culture generally. She then focuses on images of black athletes in the post-civil rights era, a period characterized by a shift from the social commentary of Muhammad Ali to the entrepreneurial approach of Michael Jordan.Ultimately Bass not only excavates the fraught history of black athleticism but also offers an incisive look at media coverage of athletic events-and the way sport is intimately bound up in popular constructions of the nation.Amy Bass is assistant professor of history at Plattsburgh State University and worked as a member of the NBC research team for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games in 2002.

Genres: History, Sports

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

As seen on the TODAY SHOW and heard on NPR, ONE GOAL is "AN EDIFYING AND ADRENALINE-CHARGED TALE." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
ONE GOAL: A Coach, A Team, and the Game that Brought A Divided Town Together from Hachette Book Group.
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Amy Bass was born and raised in New England. Now a New Yorker, the Red Sox, the Berkshires, and Cape Cod remain big pieces of her heart. The daughter of two noted local journalists, she grew up surrounded by books, mountains, and the enormous vegetable gardens, berry patches, and fruit orchard cultivated by her parents.

A history professor by day, Amy Bass has written about politics and sport for Slate, Salon, CNN Opinion, The Undefeated, and The Christian Century. She has served as senior research supervisor for NBC Olympic Sports, winning at Emmy Award for her work at the London Olympics in 2012.

ONE GOAL is her fourth book.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tommie Smith's and John Carlos's clenched fist salute at the Mexico olympics is one of the iconic moments of the civil rights struggle and of the later 1960s – but it did not come out of nothing. It was meticulously planned, and was in fact a fall back position form a planned boycott by African-American athletes. Amy Bass presents a scholarly but accessible analysis of this event, its background, and its consequences – both personal and political.

[John Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone interested in sports and civil rights in the United States during the 1960's. Bass provides insights that continue to be relevant today as African American athletes have resurrected the use of their positions as platforms for ethical protest.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book for a paper I wrote in my rhetoric class. It was very helpful!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I am not a sports fan, I certainly was able to appreciate the work done by Bass. The first 2 chapters are definitely the best, as the conversation starts to feel repetitive during the middle chapters. This book would not be something that the average person would pick up because they like the Olympics, it leans much more academically in regards to mentioning theories of culture without explanation. It works fine if you're already familiar with Foucault, Benedict Anderson, Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige, etc. I would rate it 4 stars but it gets a 3 star rating from my eyes glazing over from the extraneous examples mid-book.