African American Sports

Three months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, prizefighters Charles "Sonny" Liston and Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. stepped into a boxing ring in Miami to dispute the heavyweight championship of the world. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, and rumors were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Instead of a hero and a villain, boxing had served up two bad guys.

David Falkner, noted author of five previous books about baseball, deftly portrays the rise to stardom of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play on a major-league team in baseball’s modern era. As Falkner traces the development of Robinson’s natural skill and tireless dedication, he focuses on the strengths that earned Robinson a unique place on the diamond and in the struggle for civil rights. This compelling biography illuminates a critical intersection of sports and cultural history.

Among many legendary episodes from the life and career of men's basketball coach Dean Smith, few loom as large as his recruitment of Charlie Scott, the first African American scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drawn together by college basketball in a time of momentous change, Smith and Scott helped transform a university, a community, and the racial landscape of sports in the South.

Simone Biles was raised by her grandparents and had to overcome many hardships as a child. After trying gymnastics for the first time on a field trip from elementary school, Simone continued with the sport, working hard and reaching professional levels. She persisted in the field and went on to become the most decorated US gymnast of all time. Through it all, she inspired kids everywhere to follow their dreams.

By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Their brilliant coach had fashioned an unbeatable team from a group of boys born in the South and raised in poverty. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament.

In Mavericks, Money and Men, football historian Charles Ross chronicles the AFL's key events, including Buck Buchanan becoming the first overall draft pick in 1963, and the 1965 boycott led by black players who refused to play in the AFL All Star game after experiencing blatant racism. He also recounts how the success of the AFL forced a merger with the NFL in 1969, which arguably facilitated the evolution of modern professional football.

Jackie Robinson became the first black Major League baseball player of the modern era when he stepped onto the field as a Brooklyn Dodger in 1947. In simple, engaging language, this audiobook follows Jackie from childhood through his career as an MVP-award winning baseball player and a hero of the civil rights movement. This book is perfect for Black History Month and the start of spring training!

A powerful telling of the first African-American heavyweight champion, this story portrays how a shy, fearful young man learned to fight back and become one of history's more compelling personalities. Children will be awed and inspired by the boxer's energy and drive which is duly reflected through the rhythmic text and excellent narration.

The first week of school becomes a “Week of Hell” when forced busing divides a small southern town during the integration of its school system. The actions of a third-string football player do more than all of the politicians and educators put together to ease the pain of coming together.

On the heels of the cult television hit Friday Night Lights, The New York Times best-selling author of The Junction Boys pens the story of Texas high school football integration, and the three men who put together a championship team.

Two days before Super Bowl XLI in 2007, the game's two opposing head coaches posed with the trophy one of them would hoist after the contest. It was a fairly unremarkable event, except that both coaches were African American - a fact that was as much of a story as the game itself. As Jeremi Duru reveals in Advancing the Ball, this unique milestone resulted from the work of a determined group of people whose struggles to expand head coaching opportunities for African Americans ultimately changed the National Football League.

It is crazy how hard it is to give up a good thing. I have been dating NFL Quarterback Tanner Wilson for years now, but we have never been "official". Every time I try to break it up, he just throws money at me. Or a new car. Or a new apartment. And like a fool, I always go back to being one of his "bitches". The benefits are just too damn good. But this time it is going to be different. This time I have a trick up my sleeve and that handsome football star is not going to know what has hit him.

In the 1930s, Monroe, Louisiana, was a town of 26,000 in the northeastern corner of the state, an area described by the

New Orleans Item as the "lynch law center of Louisiana." Yet for a few years in the early 1930s, this unlikely spot was home to the Monarchs, a national-caliber Negro League baseball team. Crowds of Black and White fans eagerly filled their segregated grandstand seats to see the players who would become the only World Series team Louisiana would ever generate, and the first from the American South.

Comeback Season is the uplifting, unlikely, and inspirational true story of the friendships formed between Cam Perron - a white, baseball-obsessed teenager from Boston - and hundreds of former professional Negro League players, who were still awaiting the recognition and compensation that they deserved from Major League Baseball more than 50 years after their playing days were over.

Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, did something no team from one school had ever done before: They won the state basketball and baseball championships in the same year. They defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state and along the way brought blacks and whites together, eased a painful racial divide throughout the state, and overcame extraordinary obstacles on their road to success.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be the best basketball player who ever lived, then Legends in Sports: Michael Jordan is the audiobook for you. In this exciting biography, Matt Christopher, the number one children’s sportswriter in America, puts you on the basketball court with the legendary superstar. Take an inside look at the triumphs, struggles, and statistics of one of the most determined players in National Basketball Association history.

The first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there was no one like Effa Manley in the sports world of the 1930s and 1940s. She was a sophisticated woman who owned a baseball team. She never shrank from going head to head with men, who dominated the ranks of sports executives. That her life story remained unchronicled for so long can only be attributed to one thing: her team, the Newark Eagles, belonged to the Negro Leagues. Author James Overmyer brings to light new details regarding Effa Manley's fascinating story.

Discover the inspiring story of Jesse Owens - African American track-and-field athlete and Olympic gold medalist - in this fascinating kids' biography. Jesse Owens is one of the most famous athletes of all time, but he experienced discrimination throughout his athletic career, such as having to stay at a different hotel to his teammates, because of the color of his skin. However, he went on to win an incredible four gold medals at the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games.

Serena Williams began playing tennis when she was just a child and is now an Olympic champion who's won more Grand Slam singles titles than anyone else. Throughout her life she's battled many things, from life-threatening illnesses and sports injuries, to sexism and racism in the tennis world. Now she's an icon in sport, fashion and activism, an inspiration to every young person who has dared to dream big. Extraordinary Lives is a bold, inclusive biography series shining a light on modern and historical figures.

Evan Kindling recently retired from the professional tennis circuit and chose to make Southern California his home. He's at loose ends and doesn't know what he's going to do until a chance meeting with the beautiful girl he couldn't forget gives him a new purpose. All he has to do convince her that he's not the same careless kid who walked out on her years ago.