Racial progress in sport only came through protracted deliberate struggle

Evidence

But then again sport’s contribution to the movement against racism in the US was never, in any case, automatic or easy. Indeed, as Jeffrey Sammons (1994) makes clear in his excellent review of the still-burgeoning historical literature, racial progress in and through sport never came easily or automatically but rather slowly and unevenly, and almost always only as the result of protracted, deliberate struggles and repressive counter resistance. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2788

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on racial integration being slow, contested, and forcibly resisted rather than automatic — parallels accounts of school desegregation and civil rights setbacks.