To "Bring the Race along Rapidly": Sport, Student Culture, and Educational Mission at Historically Black Colleges during the Interwar Years

Abstract

since the turn of the century. But it was during the interwar years that the athletic ideal resonated most intensely for various commentators on the prospects for racial reform. Capturing the belief shared by numerous African American leaders that the football gridiron and baseball diamond, the track oval, and even the boxing ring offered significant platforms for proving equality, the Howard student writer carefully articulated the widespread desire that black athletes might engage white society in a broad-based dialogue about democratic principles and practices. Ideally, the success of African Americans in sport would provide powerful lessons in interracial education.2