The volume is notable for essays covering athletes in lesser-studied sports, such as cycling, golf, and crew, along with baseball, football, track, and boxing. All of the essays are well-researched and well-cited, and each contains a bibliography that will be helpful for scholars seeking to expand their knowledge of Black sports stars in general and those in Boston in particular.

Choice

Boston's Black Athletes is essential reading for those interested in gaining insight into the role of race and sport in one of America's most historically important cities. Through highly detailed, compelling, and thoroughly researched stories on individual Black athletes since the era of Reconstruction, the complex nature of sport in segregated and often racially volatile Boston is fully uncovered and clearly delineated.

David K. Wiggins, George Mason University

Boston’s Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism is a historically rich text that excavates experiences, achievements, and impacts of Black sportspersons connected to Boston and the greater New England region. A unique and appealing aspect of the text is the coverage of Black sportspersons’ contributions in a wide range of sports including basketball, hockey, football, rodeo, track and field, soccer, golf, rowing, boxing, and cycling. The analysis of local, regional, national, and international resonance of Black sportspersons is insightful and inspiring. The collection of contributors from diverse backgrounds and the intentional focus on both Black men and women across a range of sports is laudable and signifies a notable shift in sport historiographic research. This historiographic contribution debunks myths that erase Black athletic feats from the records and advances our collective understanding of the legacy of social progress has deep roots in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. This legacy has and will continue to resonate from the local level to the global level.

Joseph N. Cooper, University of Massachusetts, Boston