And perhaps not a narrative that fits easily into the story of race and Boston sport, with its recognizable highs (the Boston Celtics drafting the NBA’s first Black player in Chuck Cooper in 1950, and making their longtime star Bill Russell the league’s first Black coach in 1966) and lows (the Boston Red Sox being the last Major League Baseball team to integrate, with Pumpsie Green in 1959).
Published in time for Black History Month, with a foreword by the New England Patriots’ three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty, the book sheds light on Black sporting achievements in Boston that may be lesser-known to the broader community.
The book’s chapters span 150 years of Boston history, and include examinations of Black athletes in lesser-covered Boston sports such as soccer, boxing, golf and tennis.
And, Stark says, “I think what makes the book unique among books on race and sport is that you don’t find one focusing on a particular city.” He calls the book’s subject “one particular northern city with sort of a troubled, racist past.”.
Among the earliest they reached out to was Joseph Cooper, the inaugural chair of sport leadership and administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is also a special assistant to the chancellor for Black life as well as an associate professor.
