A captivating exploration of Black American civil rights activism through the lens of sport.
In Frontline Bodies, Nicolas Martin-Breteau argues that sports are not-and have never been-purely about entertainment for Black Americans. Instead, beginning in the 1890s during Reconstruction, Black Americans proactively used athletics as a tactic to fight racial oppression. Since the body was the primary target of anti-Black racial oppression, African Americans turned sports into a key medium in their struggles for dignity, equality, and justice. Although Black photography and art also aimed at displaying the dignity of the Black body, sports arguably had the greatest impact on American and international public opinion.
Martin-Breteau considers the work of Edwin B. Henderson, a prominent Black physical educator, civil rights activist, and historian of Black sports. Training Black children as athletes, Henderson felt, would work both to fortify racial pride and to
