At the Smithsonian | October 11, 2024

These 17 Pictures Tell the Stories of Black Athletes in America

A new book from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture shows the images and impacts of athletes on and off the playing field

Muhammad Ali

Kayla Randall

Digital Editor, Museums

In October of 1970, a light was shining on Muhammad Ali.

He’d just beaten Jerry Quarry in a three-round fight, and sports broadcaster Tom Harmon held up a microphone to Ali’s face as cornerman Drew Bundini Brown put his hand over Ali’s heart. Background spotlights illuminated the scene of his victory speech.

Photographer Richard Herman was 27 years old when he immortalized that moment with his camera. Now, at 81, he recalls the beauty of the image.

“It was such a touching moment, and the light streaming in with the smoke-filled room, it was like it was onstage in a theater,” Herman says. “I said, ‘Oh, boy, this is a great, great shot.’”

Though Herman was on vacation from his job as a news assistant, he was given a press pass to attend the fight. While he’d never been to a fight before that one, he says, he had been following Ali’s career and liked and respected him.

“Anytime he would talk, I would listen to him,” he says. “To be able to go see him live was really a very special event for me as a kid.”

The picture is one of Herman’s favorites. “I feel so passionate about that one picture,” he says. “It was a special moment. … I can’t let go of that. I have it in my house, of course.”

Herman’s photo is one of more than 60 featured in a new publication from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture called Game Changers, the latest in its “Double Exposure” series. The pictures come from dozens of named photographers, including Maurice Sorrell, Moneta Sleet Jr. and Walter Iooss Jr., and others who are unknown.

It’s a powerful array of sports imagery, a look at the lives of Black athletes in America from the early 20th century to the present. “What these photographs aren’t is silent,” museum director Kevin Young writes in the foreword.

In some images, the athletes are in motion, playing their sports. In others, they are at rest, smiling with friends and family.

We see them in black-and-white, and in color. We see athletes we know from across generations: Walter Payton and Michael Jordan, Jackie Robinson and Althea Gibson, Hank Aaron and Gabby Douglas, Venus Williams and LeBron James.

But also, we see everyday people—boys playing sandlot baseball, girls playing double Dutch.

The double Dutch photo stuck out to former NFL player Domonique Foxworth. In an essay for the book, Foxworth writes: “The photo was taken in the Bronzeville neighborhood of 1940s Chicago, but it loses its time stamp when you focus on the girl jumping to the rhythm of the double Dutch ropes.”

He continues, “The ropes themselves act as a kind of whirring eye, with the girl centered inside. The eye invites the viewer to appreciate the action—or, more specifically, the dozens of high-level decisions and acrobatic actions that so often typify Black people at play. However, metaphorically, we know this is not just play; there’s more at stake because, in double Dutch as in life, Black people can’t afford a misstep. So, they learn to run, jab, float.”

Damion Thomas, the museum’s curator of sports, and David K. Wiggins, a sports studies scholar at George Mason University, note in the book that its aim “is not to tell sports history, but rather to engage the depth, beauty and challenges of African American history through the lens of sport photography.”

Game Changers: Sports Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Double Exposure, 9)

Photographs in the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s collection explore the dynamic ways sports influence the social, political and cultural life of Black Americans

Jack Johnson

In this 1910 photo from Percy Dana Studio, the “Fight of the Century” happens in Reno, Nevada. There, Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight champion, battled and beat Jim Jeffries, who was previously an undefeated world heavyweight champion, in 15 rounds. Johnson’s win sparked anti-Black violence around the country, and numerous Black Americans were killed.

Samuel Huston College women’s basketball team

An unidentified photographer’s picture shows a 1920s women’s basketball team from Samuel Huston College, a historically Black college in Austin, Texas, which merged with Tillotson College to create Huston-Tillotson College in 1952.

Emma Maitland

In the early 20th century, Emma Maitland, a dancer, was billed as the female lightweight boxing champion of the world. She’s seen using a punching bag in a late-1920s image by an unidentified photographer.

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens, running for Ohio State University, crosses the finish line during a race, circa 1935, in this visual from Keystone.

Girls playing double Dutch

Double Dutch, Chicago, 1946–48; printed later — Girls double Dutch in Chicago © Wayne F. Miller Family / National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Wayne F. Miller Family

In this picture by Wayne F. Miller, young girls play double Dutch in the snow in 1940s Chicago. Game Changers notes that “double Dutch became a favored sport, especially for girls, during the Depression era because it was inexpensive: It only required a clothesline.”

Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron, seen here circa 1956 in a photo by David Jackson, became the home run king during his 23-season MLB career. He finished his career with 755 home runs, currently second all-time.

Emmett Ashford

In this image by Maurice Sorrell, umpire Emmett Ashford makes a call during a game between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees in Baltimore on April 15, 1966. Ashford was the first Black umpire in MLB history.

Jackie Robinson

J. Alan Fisher took this photo of Jackie Robinson at a voter registration event in 1972. Robinson, who broke the MLB color barrier in 1947, was active in the civil rights movement and a voting rights advocate.

Arthur Ashe

Photographer Maurice Sorrell took this picture of Arthur Ashe during the Washington Star International tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. in July 1975.

Althea Gwyn

David Peterson’s photo of Althea Gwyn shows the New York Stars player mid-game against the Iowa Cornets. Both teams were part of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which lasted from 1978 to 1981. The New York Stars team played their last game in April 1980.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Ozier Muhammad’s 1970s photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shows the basketball legend flying mid-dunk during the NBA’s East vs. West All-Star Game.

Doug Williams

This October 1978 picture by Vandell Cobb captured quarterback Doug Williams of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing against the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Williams became the first Black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl in 1988.

Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson, seen here in a 1983 image by Vandell Cobb, spent 25 years as an MLB player and is considered the game’s greatest leadoff hitter, known for his ability to steal bases. He stole a league-record 1,406 bases during his career.

Seba Johnson

Seba Johnson became the first Black woman to compete in Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, and the youngest Olympic skier at only 14 years old, in 1988. Here, in a photo by Margaret Chidlaw, Johnson skis during the 1989 Alpine Skiing World Cup in Colorado.

Briana Scurry

Briana Scurry was the goalkeeper for the Olympic gold medal-winning 1996 U.S. women’s national team. She wears her 1996 Olympic gold medal in this photo by Bruce Lee Photography. She retired in 2010 and became the first Black woman inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2017.

Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick

Then-San Francisco 49ers players Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick kneel during the national anthem in San Diego on September 1, 2016, captured by photographer Michael Zagaris. Throughout the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick, a 49ers quarterback at the time, took a knee during the anthem to protest police brutality and the killings of Black people.

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