Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
College football has long served as an apparatus for advancing racial equality, but the process by which it did so has been muddled and oversimplified. Popular histories have often reduced college football’s desegregation down to a singular event, the 1970 USC-Alabama game. Although the game was significant in its own right, it contributed very little to the desegregation of college football. Instead, the USC-Bama game gained exposure due to prominence of the teams involved rather than its historical significance.
The game propagated numerous myths, including the idea that the South was not ready to desegregate until Alabama lost to the desegregated USC team. This was not only untrue, but it took away from the factual history of college football’s desegregation, a process that took nearly 100 years. The story of the USC-Bama game also detracted from college football’s ongoing process of integration and African American equality, as if black players were suddenly granted legal rights and were no longer discriminated against. My overarching argument is that college football, and America’s love for the sport, uniquely placed African American players in a position which forced the country to confront racial inequality in a way that few other outlets at the time did or could.
The game propagated numerous myths, including the idea that the South was not ready to desegregate until Alabama lost to the desegregated USC team. This was not only untrue, but it took away from the factual history of college football’s desegregation, a process that took nearly 100 years. The story of the USC-Bama game also detracted from college football’s ongoing process of integration and African American equality, as if black players were suddenly granted legal rights and were no longer discriminated against. My overarching argument is that college football, and America’s love for the sport, uniquely placed African American players in a position which forced the country to confront racial inequality in a way that few other outlets at the time did or could.
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