A Hard Road to Glory, Legendary Black Tennis Star Arthur Ashe's Two Volume History of African American Athletes, 1619-1945

Arthur Ashe

First Edition

[African American][Sports][Entertainment] Arthur Ashe. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete 1619-1918.and the Second volume: Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete 1918-1945. New York: Warner Books, 1988. First edition. Hardcover with DJ. Ashe, a tennis champion and civil rights advocate, sought to correct the historical neglect of Black athletes, meticulously documenting their achievements across multiple sports while contextualizing their fight for inclusion in a segregated and discriminatory society. Arthur Ashe devoted years of research to compiling A Hard Road to Glory, a groundbreaking chronicle of African Americans in sports. The first volume (1619-1918) traces the earliest recorded Black athletes in North America, highlighting figures such as Isaac Burns Murphy, a dominant 19th-century jockey, and Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion. Ashe details the struggle of Black athletes in the shadow of slavery, Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow, emphasizing their resilience in the face of systemic exclusion. Illustrated with rare photographs, the text sheds light on forgotten pioneers, including Edward Dudley Brown and Jimmy Winkfield, whose contributions shaped the trajectory of American sports.

The second volume (1919-1945) continues this exploration through the interwar period and World War II, documenting the growing prominence of Black athletes despite persistent segregation. This era saw the emergence of legends like Jesse Owens, whose record-breaking Olympic performances defied Hitler’s Aryan supremacy narrative, and the Negro Leagues baseball players who excelled despite exclusion from Major League Baseball. The book also examines the broader social and political movements affecting Black athletes, including their contributions to the war effort and their increasing role in challenging racial barriers. Additionally, the volume highlights the contributions of Cleveland Abbott, the pioneering athletic director at Tuskegee Institute, who played a crucial role in developing Black collegiate athletics. Abbott’s leadership at Tuskegee helped foster a generation of elite Black athletes, many of whom went on to break racial barriers in professional sports. Near fine condition in original black cloth with gilt titles, in near-fine dust jackets with minimal edgewear. Interiors clean, with sharp text and images. A foundational work in African American sports history, A Hard Road to Glory remains a definitive source on Black athletic achievement and the intersection of sports and civil rights.

Item #21501

Price: $225.00