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A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America Hardcover – April 1, 2014

by Jennifer H. Lansbury (Author)

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When high jumper Alice Coachman won the high jump title at the 1941 national championships with "a spectacular leap," African American women had been participating in competitive sport for close to twenty-five years. Yet it would be another twenty years before they would experience something akin to the national fame and recognition that African American men had known since the 1930s, the days of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. From the 1920s, when black women athletes were confined to competing within the black community, through the heady days of the late twentieth century when they ruled the world of women's track and field, African American women found sport opened the door to a better life. However, they also discovered that success meant challenging perceptions that many Americans--both black and white--held of them. Through the stories of six athletes--Coachman, Ora Washington, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudloph, Wyomia Tyus, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee--Jennifer H. Lansbury deftly follows the emergence of black women athletes from the African American community; their confrontations with contemporary attitudes of race, class, and gender; and their encounters with the civil rights movement. Uncovering the various strategies the athletes use to beat back stereotypes, Lansbury explores the fullness of African American women's relationship with sport in the twentieth century.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jennifer Lansbury brings much needed scholarly attention to the lives of African American women athletes. She has written a compelling, readable narrative that uses biography to illuminate black women's place in sport history and, more broadly, U.S. history." --Susan K. Cahn, author of Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women's Sport

“An important addition to the historiography of women and sport.”
—The Journal of American History

“An insightful, well-researched, and thought-provoking analysis of African American female athletes in the last century.”

—Journal of African American History

From the Inside Flap

About the Author

Jennifer H. Lansbury formerly served as assistant professor of history and director of Sport and American Culture minor at George Mason University.

Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press (April 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557286582
ISBN-13: 978-1557286581
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: Be the first to review this item
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #239 in Sociology of Sports (Books)
- #1589 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Books)
- #1200 in Sports History

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