The
John Carlos Story was authored by John Carlos himself, with an Introduction by
Professor Cornel West and a Preface by Dave Zirin. There follow individual
pictures of Doctor West and Dave Zirin, followed by a recent picture of John
Carlos and, finally, the picture spoken of in the book and widely characterized
as the most important picture of sports protest in the 20th century:
Howsoever,
I reviewed the book for Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago, and there follows
that review, verbatim. You can access the book's name at Amazon, and I
recommend that you do, then buy the book and read it: it's a perfect gem of
sports autobiography:
"Growing up in Harlem, John Carlos knew
both Fred Astair, from his performances outside the Cotton Club, and Malcolm X,
from his presences in Harlem's other streets.
He was dyslexic, and the greatest American black athlete of the 20th century.
He was NYC to the bone, but really experienced the depths of American racism in
East Texas, after not becoming an Olympic
swimmer because racism prevented him from practicing in NYC area pools. He
played pro football for the Eagles after being ostracized by white America in the
1960's and continuously afterwards, tore all the ligaments in his knee making a
cutback on the then-still-new Astro-turf, and afterwards was a cripple for
life. He loved kids and as far as I can tell started the presently flourishing
activity of enormously talented athletes sponsoring underprivileged kids'
programs. And, of course, he and Tommie Jones raised their gloved fists in the
Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, as pictured on the book's cover.
There's an excellent Forward to the book by Professor Cornel West, and an
excellent Preface to it by Dave Zirin.
I've been checking The John Carlos Story in and out of libraries for months,
trying to write a review of it within light-years of the review it deserves.
But I can't. It's just too good."
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