Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-24-2014 12:00 AM I Am America: The Chicago Defender on Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Civil Rights, 1934-1975 Nevada Cooke The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Robert K. Barney The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Kinesiology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Nevada Cooke 2014 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cooke, Nevada, "I Am America: The Chicago Defender on Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Civil Rights, 1934-1975" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2027. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2027 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. I AM AMERICA The Chicago Defender on Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Civil Rights, 1934-1975 Thesis format: Monograph by Nevada Ross Cooke Graduate Program in Kinesiology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Nevada Cooke 2014 ABSTRACT This study examines the effect that the careers of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali had on civil rights and race relations in the United States between 1934 and 1975 from the perspective of the black community, as interpreted through a qualitative analysis of the content provided by the Chicago Defender’s editorial posture and its black readership.