Race and the NFL: One Athlete’S Perspective on The
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Race and the NFL: One Athlete’s Perspective on the Civil Rights Movement Interviewer: Ryan Brown Interviewee: Roger Brown Instructor: Mr. Whitman Date: February 17, 2015 Brown 2 Table of Contents Statement of Purpose 3 Interviewee Release Form 4 Interviewer Release Form 5 Biography 6-7 “The Civil Rights Movement: The Role of African Americans in Professional Sports” 8-15 Interview Transcription 16-42 Interview Analysis 43-46 Works Consulted 47-49 Brown 3 Statement of Purpose This Oral History Project is about the Civil Rights Movement and how one African American who played in the NFL recalls the Civil Rights movement in the United States. In this interview, Roger Brown shares his story of playing professional football during a time of racism and discrimination. This interview is a primary source of one of the most important times in the history of the United States. Brown 4 Brown 5 Brown 6 Roger Brown Biography Roger Brown was born in Surry County, V.A. He went to a segregated school and moved to Nyack, N.Y. when he was in the fifth grade. In Nyack, the racial climate was completely different. He attended an integrated school, where he was one of the only African American students. His father worked at a hospital in Nyack. One of Mr. Brown’s favorite things to do as a child was to go to his grandma’s house. He also enjoyed playing sports, such as kickball and soccer. Mr. Brown started playing football in high school, while maintaining a job at a local car wash. Mr. Brown graduated high school in 1955. Mr. Brown had many college interests and offers from big name colleges, but decided to attend Maryland State University, a historically black college, that fall. Mr. Brown played football for Maryland State, now Maryland Eastern Shore, and played many great games with them. Mr. Brown not only played football during his college Brown 7 career, but also was the DJ for a local radio station. Mr. Brown was drafted by the Detroit Lions without graduating from college in 1960. Mr. Brown played for the Lions for six years and the LA Rams for another three years. During his time as an NFL player, he went to seven pro bowls. Mr. Brown retired in 1970 to devote his time to his restaurants, located in Portsmouth, V.A. Brown 8 The Civil Rights Movement: The Role of African Americans in Professional Sports As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (Martin Luther King Jr.). African Americans were oppressed ever since they were taken from Africa and sold as slaves in colonial America, starting in 1619. The Portuguese were the first people to try to make Africans slaves in America. Before the end of the 19th century, there were more than five times as many Africans than Americans and European immigrants in America. In 1808, the slave trade from Africa was outlawed, but the domestic slave trade in America flourished.1 Over the next 50 years, the slave trade almost tripled. The slave population reached nearly 4 million by 1860, and more than half of the slaves lived in southern states that produced cotton. The slaves won their freedom when the North won the Civil War in 1865, but they did not win equality. African Americans were still being treated poorly throughout the country, and this spurred the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights movement started in 1954 with the Brown v Board supreme court case and ended in 1968 with the “Civil Rights Act.” Integrated professional sports played a part in the Civil Rights Movement. Sports were another way to break the color barriers in the United States. Therefore, to understand the Civil Rights Movement, one must examine the history of Africans in America and the role of sports in the racial struggle against the 1 Even though the Slave Trade had ceased in most of the rest of the world, slavery in the United States continued until 1865. Brown 9 backdrop of the concept of non-violent protesting and civil disobedience. It is also important to gain a first hand perspective from someone who experienced being a black, professional athlete first hand. The History of Africans in America starts in the year 1619, when the Portuguese made a contract exporting Africans to America. Africans were taken to America to be used as slaves on farms, most of which were in the south. In December, Massachusetts becomes the first colony to recognize slavery as a legal institution in 1641 Body of Liberties (Smith). Slavery continued, but in 1808, the slave trade from Africa was outlawed. However the internal slave trade within America flourished. Over the next 50 years, the slave trade almost tripled. There was less fertile land left because of how much tobacco was being farmed. The South had overused the land while growing tobacco and was facing a major economic crisis. In England, the textile industry was just starting to become lucrative, and they needed American cotton. The problem with cotton was that it was very hard to get the seeds out of the cotton fibers. In 1793, a schoolteacher, Eli Whitney, created a mechanized device called the Cotton Gin. The Cotton Gin removed seeds from raw cotton fiber. His idea spread around the south, and soon everybody was farming cotton. This transformation from tobacco to cotton only reinforced the South’s dependency on slave labor. The slave population reached nearly 4 million by 1860, and more than half of the slaves lived in southern states that produced cotton. Slaves made up one third of the South’s population. Most of the slaves lived on farms and plantations, and most of the slave masters owned less than 50 slaves. The slave masters wanted the slaves to rely solely on their master. One way that the masters accomplished this was by not letting the slaves learn how to read or write. Brown 10 Some slave masters rewarded obedient slave behavior with favors. Rebellious slaves were punished. Some slave owners took sexual liberties with their slaves. The slave master aimed to keep the slaves divided and less likely to start a rebellion against their master. Slave revolts did occur in the south, no matter how hard the slave masters tried to oppress them. Most of the slave revolts were not successful. “The slave revolt that most terrified white slaveholders was that led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1931” (Staff, Slavery In America). About 75 runaway slaves murdered about 60 whites two days before the state army overwhelmed them. During this time, most of the slaves were living in the south on farms. The North realized that the South was oppressing the slave population. Slavery was not needed in the North, and so the North argued for the freedom of the slaves. The new U.S. Constitution started “counting each slave as three-fifths of a person” (Staff, Slavery In America). In 1820, there was a big debate about the government’s ability to restrict slavery in Missouri. The compromise stated that Missouri was admitted into the union as a slave state, and Maine would be admitted as a free state, and all of the north western territories from Missouri's south border were free territories. The Emancipation Proclamation took away the bulk of the labor forces for the confederacy, and put the international public opinion on the Union’s side. Almost 200,000 black soldiers joined the Union Army before the war ended, and almost 40,000 lost their lives. A little over 600,000 people lost their lives throughout the Civil War, which makes the American Civil War the bloodiest battle in American history. Slavery started being outlawed in the United States with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln had an opportunity after the victory at Antietam to Brown 11 give his Emancipation Proclamation, which he gave on September 22, 1862. He said that as of January 1, 1863 all slaves in states in rebellion against the United States shall be freed. The Thirteenth Amendment increased the representation of Southern States because they were counting African Americans as whole people, leaving the three fifths compromise meaningless. The Thirteenth Amendment says "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (Amendment 13). The Fourteenth Amendment was a radical measure in the context of the times, because it addressed citizenship for former slaves. Newly freed slaves had never before been granted significant political power. These two Amendments helped African Americans get their freedom and the rights that they deserved. There were two key events that eventually led to the Civil Rights Movement. During the pre-civil rights era, there were sets of laws called “Jim Crow laws.” Jim Crow laws were one way that the south oppressed African Americans. The laws did not allow African Americans to use the same bathrooms, go to the same theaters, ride the same train cars, or even learn in the same classrooms as whites. The other important event leading up to the Civil Rights Movement was Plessy v Ferguson. Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "white" car of the East Louisiana Railroad on June 7, 1892. Plessy could have passed as a white, but under the Louisiana law, he was required to sit in the colored car even though he had a light complexion. The whites in Texas said that the “only grievance the Texas Negroes have is that the law passed by the retiring legislature requires them to ride in separate coaches on railroads” (Crittenden Post).