Great Speed and Great Stamina: A History of Black American Long-Distance Road Runners, 1942-1969

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Fredericks, Jacob
Graduate Program:
Kinesiology
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 23, 2022
Committee Members:
Mark Dyreson, Major Field Member
Jaime Schultz, Major Field Member
Michelle Sikes, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Francisco Javier Lopez Frias, Major Field Member
Ashley Schroeder, Outside Unit & Field Member
Jonathan Dingwell, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Keywords:
race
sport
running
marathon
Black Americans
history
Abstract:
In the wake of the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was murdered while running in Georgia, media outlets such as the New York Times and Runner’s World reflected on the general lack of Black American participation in distance running, asking “why is running so white?” The killing of Arbery shined a harsh spotlight on the demographics of the sport, raising questions about race and long-distance running which scholars have yet to answer fully. The history of long-distance running in the United States has focused on white athletes, and the contributions of Black athletes such as Ted Corbitt, Louis White, and Oscar Moore have been overshadowed. Yet these men and other Black American long-distance runners made significant contributions to the sport in the middle decades of the twentieth century. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, Black American men were at the heart of the evolving networks, races, clubs, and technologies that comprised competitive long-distance running in the United States. Their contributions in this era paved the way for the revolutionary expansion of running as a recreational and health-promoting activity across the nation in the 1970s. By showing the substantial contributions that Black American marathoners made to long-distance running in the United States from the 1940s through the 1960s, this dissertation reshapes ongoing debates about Black American athletic successes, race and sport in the United States, and the history of long-distance running.