University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO Center Austria Research Center Austria 4-2020 “A Matter of Personal Pride”: How African American Football All- Stars Exposed Bigotry in New Orleans, including Didactic Considerations and Lesson Plans Andreas Hofbauer Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/austria_res Part of the African American Studies Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Hofbauer, Andreas, "“A Matter of Personal Pride”: How African American Football All-Stars Exposed Bigotry in New Orleans, including Didactic Considerations and Lesson Plans" (2020). Center Austria Research. Paper 2. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/austria_res/2 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Center Austria at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Center Austria Research by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A Matter of Personal Pride” How African American Football All-Stars Exposed Bigotry in New Orleans, including Didactic Considerations and Lesson Plans Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck eingereicht bei: assoz. Prof. Mag. Dr. Eva Pfanzelter (MA) Institut für Zeitgeschichte Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät der Universität Innsbruck eingereicht von: Andreas Hofbauer 01215446 Innsbruck, New Orleans, April 2020 Dedications I dedicate this work to my parents, Anna and Thomas, my step-grandmother, Siglinde, and my girlfriend, Jacqueline, who have always supported me unconditionally. i Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the entire Center Austria team at the University of New Orleans for all the help and guidance with my work and all the pleasant moments in our office: Director Dr. Günter Bischof, Asst. Director Dr. Marc Landry, Coordinator Mag. Gertraud Griessner, Senior Fellow Dr. Charles Hadley, Ministry of Science Fellow Mag. Christian Stenico, and Center Austria Fellow Jacqueline Wieser, BA. I especially want to thank Dr. Bischof and Center Austria for providing me with a travel grant that allowed me to go to Washington, D.C. and do research at the Library of Congress. I also want to thank Land Tirol and the City of Innsbruck for financing my fellowship at UNO. Furthermore, I want to thank Dr. Gordon ‘Nick’ Mueller and his son David Mueller for their support; my interview partners Dr. Raphael Cassimere and Dr. Richard Lapchick for their insights into the civil rights movement and sport history; and Dr. Mark Cave for providing material from the Crescent City Sport exhibition at the Historic New Orleans Collection. ii Contents Table of Illustrations ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................ v Introduction and Historiography ............................................................................................ 1 From Jim Crow to Integration: New Orleans and the Civil Rights Movement ...................... 10 Media Coverage of the 1965 AFL Boycott .......................................................................... 17 Initial Response and Negative Framing ............................................................................ 17 The Boycott as a Positive Example of Athlete Activism................................................... 39 The Aftermath ..................................................................................................................... 54 The AFL-NFL Merger and the Birth of the New Orleans Saints....................................... 54 The Boycott’s Lasting Effect: The Public Accommodation Ordinance of 1969 ................ 68 Public Memory of the AFL All-Star Game Boycott ............................................................. 79 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 85 Didactic Considerations ...................................................................................................... 90 Sports, Civil Rights and the Austrian Curriculum for History .......................................... 90 Historical and Political Competencies .............................................................................. 94 Basic Concepts of Learning History ................................................................................. 98 Working with Historical Newspapers in the Classroom.................................................... 99 Lesson Plans and Materials ............................................................................................ 102 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 111 Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 120 Interview Transcript I .................................................................................................... 120 Interview Transcript II ................................................................................................... 127 iii Table of Illustrations Illustration 1: Advertisement urging readers to sign a petition for a professional football team in New Orleans, The Times-Picayune, Aug. 18th, 1962. ............................................. 18 Illustration 2: Advertisement for the American Football League All-Star Game in the Times- Picayune, January 1st, 1965. Profits of the game would go to the New Orleans Police Foundation Inc. and other police assistance groups. ............................................................. 20 Illustration 3: Caricature in the Times-Picayune, published on November 2nd, 1966. ........ 64 Illustration 4: Caricature supporting the Times-Picayune editorial about amendments vital to the area, Times-Picayune, November 7th, 1966. .................................................................. 66 Illustration 5: Caricature stressing the importance of a public accommodations reform in regard to sporting events and conventions, The Times-Picayune, December 18th, 1969. ..... 76 Illustration 6: Ticket for the AFL All-Star League Game, courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection............................................................................................................... 82 Illustration 7: The New Orleans Sports and Cultural Activities Foundation, Inc. provides information on ticket refunds after the cancellation. Customers still had the chance to donate the ticket price to the Police Foundation, courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection. 82 Illustration 8: An editorial on July 4th, 1964, by WDSU-TV expressed high hopes for the AFL All-Star Game, courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection. .............................. 83 Illustration 9: Newspaper clipping highlighting New Orleans' NAACP president Ernest Morial's effort to persuade the players to stay, courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection. .......................................................................................................................... 84 Illustration 10: Competency-model developed by the FUER-group (Förderung und Entwicklung von reflektierten Geschichtsbewusstsein, in: Schreiber, Historisches Denken, p. 30. ....................................................................................................................................... 95 Illustration 11: Deconstruction and reconstruction as core-competences of the Historische Methodenkompetenz, in: Schreiber, Historisches Denken, p. 32. ......................................... 96 iv Abstract Throughout African American history, sport has played a major role in promoting integration and full participation in American society beyond the playing fields or courts. In the 1960s, after the first wave of African American athletes entering the white-dominated collegiate and professional sports leagues, active forms of protest against racial inequality in the US became gradually more relevant. Though in relatively small numbers, some African American athletes across various sports have used their privileged situation to voice the need for a revision of the system which has failed to represent and serve their people throughout American history. This paper focuses on the boycott of the American Football League (AFL) All-Star Game in New Orleans after African American ball players experienced racial discrimination in the Crescent City. Their decisive action led the league officials to move the game to Houston, but, of course, also impacted New Orleans’ reputation and prestige in a rapidly changing America. Through an analysis of newspaper discourse, this diploma thesis attempts to reconstruct how public opinion about this incident was shaped. Moreover, it will be discussed how the boycott impacted race relations in New Orleans and how the protest became a part of public memory in recent years. v Introduction and Historiography The 1960s may well be regarded as a decade of drastic transition in American history. US- foreign policy and diplomacy were dominated by the Cold War and the fight against the spread of communism, most notably in