Race and Resistance in Boston

Robert Cvornyek is professor emeritus of history at Rhode Island College. He is the author of Black Grays and Colored Giants: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Baseball in Rhode Island, 1870–1949. Douglas Stark is a museum consultant and sports historian. He is the author of The James Naismith Reader: Basketball in His Own Words (Nebraska, 2021). Devin McCourty played his entire thirteen-year NFL career with the New England Patriots, winning three Super Bowls.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsForewordDevin McCourtyIntroductionRobert Cvornyek and Douglas StarkPart I Framing Race, Community, and Resistance in Boston1 Integration in Sport: How Busing Reshaped Athletic Talent by Bijan Bayne2 An Opening Conversation: Black Activism in Boston Sports by Joseph Cooper3  The Middle Lane: Race, Sports, Boston, Hoops, and Community by Marcis Fennell, C. Keith Harrison, and Kelly DwyerPart II Legitimacy in the Jim Crow Era4 Gentlemen of Color: Oliver and Fred Watson and New England Black Soccer by Brian Bunk and Ed Farnsworth5 In Pursuit of the Boundary: Cricket in Boston’s West Indian Community, 1900 to 1950 by Violet Showers Johnson6 Black Eyes: A History of Race in the Boston PrizeRing by Andrew Smith7 The Color of Baseball: Race and Boston’s Sporting Community by Robert Cvornyek8 Covering Race and Sports in Boston: The Pioneering Work of Mabray “Doc” Kountze by Donna L. Halper9 Pioneers of African American Golf at the Crossroads: The 1941 Negro National Open Golf Championship Tournament in Boston, Massachusetts by Marvin Dawkins and Jomills Henry Braddock IIPart III Power and Performance in the Freedom Movement10 Center of Controversy: Bill Russell and Boston by Aram Goudsouzian11 Willie O’Ree: The Sky’s the Limit by George Fosty12 Zero Love: The Intersection of Race and Class in Boston Tennis by Sundiata Djata13 Darling and the Dyke: Differing receptions in the coming-out of Jason Collins and Brittney Griner by Jamie Loke14 The Enduring Sounds of Whiteness: Boston Sports Radio and Race by Donna L. Halper15 Act as If: Alison Feaster, the Politics of Inclusion, and Achieving the American Dream in the National Basketball Association  by Eileen Narcotta-Welp and Lis EricksonAfterwordShifting the Focus: Balancing Sports Commemoration and Race by Kathryn Leann HarrisContributors

"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