Chuck Cooper Racism

Chuck Cooper and others are well known African Americans for taking a stand on segregated sports. They lived in a time when blacks and whites were separated, their was lots of racism, and sports were segregated. Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathan Sweetwater integrated basketball in 1950. While integrating basketball they were faced with lots of racism. They were also risking their lives because almost every white person was trying to get them to stop and tried whatever they could to try to get them to stop. Many African Americans were inspired by Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathan Sweetwater actions and followed their footsteps and paved a new path for integrating a sport.

Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathan Sweetwater were all treated

differently because of their skin color. They received racism while they tried to integrate basketball. They were spit on by people that didn't like them, they were denied admission in hotels and restaurants even when they were staying there or eating their as a team,.they were called really offensive names, their families received many threats saying they would kill them if they didn't stop playing basketball,
they were also payed very little money for what they did. They didn't receive as much racism because their was three of them and a few years before them Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier so people already had experienced African Americans playing with whites. (“Professional”)

(Brown) Most teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) league didn't like the idea of African Americans playing in their league so they told the NBA that they refused to play with African Americans.

1950 they allowed African Americans to play in the NBA. Lots of white people were mad mostly the ones who were in the league. There was a lot of racism and lots of threats trying to get them to leave the NBA .(Bowen) Many people were racist hated Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathan Sweetwater so they did almost anything they could do to get them out of the league.they were called really offensive names, their families received many threats saying they would kill them if they didn't stop playing basketball. None of the racial slurs stop any of them and now every sport is integrated.

(Shouler)

There were three African Americans (Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathan Sweetwater) even tho they were on different teams they still had each other's backs because everyone wanted to hurt them because they still wanted basketball segregated (Broussard).

Many African Americans wanted to play in the popular white leagues.

Many of those leagues were ran by rich white people that did not want African Americans to play in the leagues they ran. African Americans dominated almost every sport they played. (Kiefer) Jim Crow law cause most of the drama between blacks being segregated. He caused color signs to show up and segregated everything for blacks and whites. This made it extremely hard for African Americans to travel or do anything with whites. It was supposed to be equal but separate but that wasn't the case. The law was attempted to remind people that their different. It wanted African Americans and whites segregated. Whites simply thought that they were better and they should be segregated and have their own leagues.

(O'Malley)

In fact Chuck Cooper and others faced many obstacles on their way to breaking the NBA color barrier. Their was lots of people who were super racist. They got treated poorly by everyone because of their skin. They had to stay out of the pubic due to many racist people.(“Chuck”) People wanted it to be an all white league so they would say and do anything to get the three African Americans to leave the NBA. Whites thought that they were better than African Americans at basketball and their was no way to compare and that's how they wanted to keep it that way. Whites were also treated a lot better by the NBA then the blacks. Many white players would be cheap on the court and would try to hurt the three African Americans (“Before”).

Jesse Owens was one of the first African Americans to play in a segregated sport. With this opportunity Jesse showed the world that whites were no better than blacks and even blacks were better at sports. Jackie Robinson then followed his example and became the first African American to play baseball with whites. Couple years later Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathaniel Sweetwater followed Jackie Robinson's example but took a little different rout being the first African Americans to play basketball (Evaleen). Some other groups and people that helped pave a path where Harlem Globetrotters, Jack Johnson, Kenny Washington, and Bill Russell. Harlem Globetrotters were an all African AMerican basketball team. They showed the world that blacks were just as good at basketball as whites were. Jack Johnson was a famous African American for boxing. He to showed the world that blacks were just as good as whites. He even proved that he was better than whites winning the heavyweight title. Kenny Washington was a great football player many people compared him to the greats that cause lots of attention to him and African Americans. Bill Russell was too a great player and ‘coach that help African Americans get attention for their ability to play sports (“African”).

Jesse Owens was a huge part for many African Americans. Almost everyone had never seen a black person compete in a sport with white people until Jesse Owen. He dominated in the olympics against many white people. Most white people were really surprised and some even cheered on for him but most maid racist jokes and said many racist stuff to him. (Thomas) Many whites saw that African Americans weren't useless and that they were good at sports. Many African Americans used Jesse Owens as motivation and confidence. Many African Americans followed his steps playing in many different sports (Jesse).

This picture is important to the thesis statement because it shows what it looked like when the NBA color barrier was broken. When it first happened Chuck Cooper seen in the photo was the only African American on his team and one of the only ones in the NBA. Their was lots of racism since he was the only African American on his team and one of the only African Americans in the league (NBA). Without Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nate Sweat