THE VANGUARD SERIES: (Re) Introducing Black Women's Resistance in Sports
#PIVOT BLOG IS BACK, AND INSPIRED TO ILLUMINATE THE AGENCY OF THE [CONSCIOUS] CULTURE VANGUARD: AN IDENTITY EMBODIED IN THE ATHLETIC AND INTELLECTUAL RIGOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN ATHLETES. IN THE UPCOMING WEEKS, WE WILL BE HIGHLIGHTING THE OG’S OF INTERSECTIONAL THINKING. STAY WOKE.
“Vanguard — noun. People that lead the way in developing and introducing cutting-edge ideas, concepts and products.”
In the current moment, Colin Kaepernick and the likes of are applauded or denounced —depending on who you ask — for demanding critical conversations on a national stage; for using their sports platform to drive awareness around the issues of police brutality, mass incarceration and the Nation’s problematic identity. Black civil defiance against and within the context of sports did not begin with Kaepernick nor is it solely spearheaded by men. The experiences of women like Rose Robinson, Wyomia Tyus and Wilma Rudolph illuminates both the complexity and brilliance of identity politics sport.
Operating in a longstanding tradition of Race Women who have stood to reclaim agency of their body, Wyomia Tyus creatively challenged the national team’s dress code at the 1968 Olympic Games. Tyus opted to race in black protest shorts “to symbolize [she] was for the human rights project.” In a statement of solidarity with her fellow teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Tyus raised her fist as she crossed the finish line and dedicated her medals to the ousted Olympian track stars. Tyus’ personal protests went largely unnoticed at the Games, and only in recent years has Tyus received recognition for her silent activism. When asked to reason the erasure of her protest, Tyus simply responded: "Because I was a woman. Who cared?" Such dynamism will not be lost on us here at New League Social.
Indeed, athletes can and should be considered apart of an intellectual tradition, as imposing such binaries only narrows the creativity for black resistance, and furthermore, reaffirms the attempt to further confine African Americans to their productive output — a racist reality predating back to slavery and extending throughout the history of black labor in America. In 1959 at the Pan Am Games Robinson held in Chicago, Illinois, Robinson infamously refused to stand for the National Anthem. As early as 1959, black women were committed to changing the narrative, confirming their identity as vanguards of the [conscious] culture.
Wilma Rudolph is presented with a pendant watch by Muhammad Ali in Long Beach, California, January 1978.
Wyomia Tyus (nearest) competes at the Olympic Games Mexico City 1968 on Oct. 15, 1968 in Mexico City, wearing black shorts.
Additionally, Rose Robinson’s declaration that “I’m not going to be a pawn. I’m not going to be a tool in this propaganda effort. And I’m not going to use my tax dollars to support this war machine. I’m not doing it. You’re not going to use my body to do that,” uncovers a certain duality inherent in Black women's bodies. In this, her refusal to stand for the National Anthem disrupts the assumed sanctity of the sports arena. How could one “kEep pOLitCs oUT oF sPOrts” when, throughout history, the black (woman) body has been made a sociopolitical spectacle?
An excerpt from a 1958 JET Magazine Article in which Rose Robinson discusses her refusal to go to Russia with the US National Track Team.
The stories of elite female high jumper Eroseanna “Rose” Robinson and Olympic gold medalists, Wyomia Tyus and Wilma Rudolph necessarily uncover gendered resistance amidst an otherwise male-dominated sphere. In their ongoing negotiation with the narrow Patriot ideal presented in sports, these women’s calculated disobedience uncovers the the layered complexity undergirding an African American woman body politic: one that emphasizes both autonomy and collective freedom.