Racism has be a part of sports in American society ever since we began to play here. In the early 20th century of our country, whites and blacks began to compete against each other in sports like football, basketball, and horse racing. Before this everything was separated for different races. This was a step toward integration in this country until the white athletes and managers decided to ban interracial competition because the black athletes began to dominate their sports. This doesn't sound much like sports. Many white competitors said blacks had a low intelligence, criminal tendencies, and inferior physicality. All of this was done to hide their fear of losing to black competitors.

After black heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson was defeated by a white boxer in 1915, a black man didn't have a shot at the title until 1936. That's 21 years that white boxers denied matches to minorities for a fear of losing. Even the media published articles promoting discrimination and racism throughout the country. Newspaper columnist Hugh S. Johnson wrote, "The average of white intelligence is above the

In the NFL though this is an entirely different story. In the NFL, 72 percent of players are African American while only 10 percent of the NFL coaches are African American. There were only 14 total black coaches in 1980, though this number has increased by far lately there is only 3 black head coaches in the NFL, Ray Rhodes,

Even in college sports there is discrimination in black coaches. Division 1 football has only four black coaches out of the total 115, or about 3.5 percent. "This is unfair and unacceptable," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. "College football thrives on the blood, sweat and tears of black players and there has to be opportunities beyond the playing field. Becoming a coach is a natural progression for many of these players and it is obvious from the way things stand now that they don't have a chance." (Civil Rights Leaders..).

A few years later the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas; ordered the desegregation of schools. This reinforced the African American confidence to gain social freedoms. It also intensified the desire to excel in interracial sporting competitions. Under this political pressure the professional sporting leagues as well as colleges, realized efforts must be made toward full integration on sports, if not everyday life.

coaching jobs. The NFL owners are telling the world they would rater bring old men out of retirement then to give it to a black guy.

In general this society must put our efforts in the kids, the future. We must instill in their minds the evils of racism, and show them to learn about a person from their personalities, not the color of their skin. As equal rights activist Richard Lapchick says,

American society needs to look at its self and realize what it has been doing. We all must work together to initiate the transformation of our country into a society without racism and prejudice. Closely looking at sports can help us change the societal problems. But if we ignore the signs around us we will forever be imbedded in racism and have a

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Approximate Word count = 3370
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)