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Forty Million Dollar Slaves

The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete

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Forty Million Dollar Slaves

By: William C. Rhoden
Narrated by: William C. Rhoden
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About this listen

From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says former New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, Black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built.

Provocative and controversial, Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of Black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in 19th-century boxing rings and at the first Kentucky Derby to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays.

Rhoden makes the cogent argument that Black athletes' "evolution" has merely been a journey from literal plantations to today's figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. Drawing from his decades as a sportswriter, Rhoden contends that Black athletes' exercise of true power is as limited today as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight.

Sweeping and meticulously detailed, Forty Million Dollar Slaves is an eye-opening exploration of a metaphor we only thought we knew.

©2006 William C. Rhoden (P)2017 Tantor
African American Studies Sociology of Sports United States Combat Sports Boxing

Critic Reviews

"Rhoden's writing is intelligent and cogent...this is an insightful look at the role of blacks in sports they dominate but hardly control." ( Publishers Weekly)

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