In the Shadow of the Flag: Black Athletes and the Politics of Protest in American Sports

Abstract

This thesis examines how Black athletes have long used sports as a platform for political resistance, tracing a century-long lineage of activism from Jack Johnson to Colin Kaepernick and beyond. It argues that Black athlete activism is not a recent phenomenon but an enduring form of protest that confronts the intertwined forces of white supremacy, nationalism, and institutional surveillance. At the core of this study is an original analytical framework that identifies four archetypal approaches to Black athlete activism: the Johnson Approach of defiant resistance, the Owens Approach of excellence as contradiction, the Robeson Approach of global ideological protest, and the Robinson Approach of strategic navigation through white institutions. These models provide a historical foundation for understanding contemporary activism in the age of social media. Methodologically, this project blends historical and discourse analysis with hashtag ethnography and autoethnographic reflection. Drawing from autobiographies, archival imagery, and digital protest movements like #TakeAKnee and #MoreThanAnAthlete, the thesis explores how today’s Black athletes use social media to resist the white gaze, reclaim their narratives, and amplify political dissent, while also facing intensified backlash and surveillance. Ultimately, this study shows that Black athlete activism continues to be a crucial site of democratic struggle, where visibility and vulnerability collide. It reasserts that protest is not an intrusion upon sport, but a central function of it – one that forces the nation to confront the gap between its ideals and its realities.