the 21st century." we interlude mr. posley, senior pastor from the antioch baptist church in indianapolis, at the annual black history luncheon n washington, d.c. >> you wrote a book about the hidden protest narrative in the black american athlete. tell me where you feel it begins. >> i believe that the protest narrative actually began the moment that africans were brought to american soil. we are celebrating the dubious 400-year anniversary of that arrival here, and immediately upon the arrival of blacks on the american shores, slave owners began to be enamored with the black male physique, so much so it caused them to engage these black men, warriors, several types of warriors and chiefs, into various types of sport, head butting, cock fighting, and what is familiar to many as

warrior fights. many of our black males did not to want engage in this, so their first opportunity to show disdain or revolt or rebellion against treatment was through a mechanism that was thrust upon them, which was sports. that started the evolution of black males in sports as a means to set forth political voids, and created an expression of their radical desires to stop oppression. it was small, menial beginning, but it was still an important beginning, and sports became a vehicle on the moment we got to american soil. >> when do you feel it transitioned, once blacks became a part of professional sports, when do you feel that protests began? >> well, i believe yts most significant protest began in the 1960's. it was propelled by actions

like the student nonviolent coordinating committee. what they did was bring education and protest together as to create an intelligent thrust of protests. so what we have is that producing persons like atwood, james farmer, and bill russell, and muhammad ali and others that gave rise to the prominence that we began to understand later in the 196 he's for the black athlete. harry edwards, who started the olympic project for human rights, corraled a group of people who were once a part of it and called them workers and black athletes to come together and lay the foundation, which later gave voice to who we came to know as tommy smith and john car scomplose their prominent protest at the mexico city, mexico, olympics. >> tell me about the background. >> harry atwood thought it

necessary to bring all of the prominent black college athletes, professional athletes together for the purpose of becoming a sports connected civil rights arm to go with malcolm x was doing, to go with what martin luther king were doing n. his book, he explains what he was trying to do was bring intelligence black males to the forefront and use the one platform or mechanism they had, which was sports. that's no different whan what lebron is doing today. that's no different than what colin carry nick and eric reid have done today. these two recently won a case -- recently had their case settled with the nfl. that is huge. that mean they stood their groufpblet did they get all the money they wanted? probably not being, but they won. so the evolution continues. >> you mentioned muhammad ali was a part of that movement. how long did that movement last

ads an athlete? >> for muhammad ali, it probably lasted longer through the 196 owe's for he than my other athleefments as you know, because of political, his political stands, cassius clay, who later became muhammad ali, actually was stripped of his heavyweight title, and so his struggle went on into the 197 owe's. so it can be argued that the most prominent black athlete is the one who lost the most in the 196 he's, could easily be called muhammad ali. and so even today, the fruit that we see happening in the life, from the life of muhammad ali, and in the life of colin kaepernick and in the life of eric reid and in the life of lebron james, it's born from the stand, the courage from muhammad ali. >> and were there some other icon that is we may be less familiar with that you can talk

about? >> doug johnson from the 1920's, a prominent boxer, who refused to allow himself to be paid in chicken feed. he was a world champion boxer in the 1920's. he was the first to demand to e paid over $1,000 for boxing. and jesse owens. jesse owens, in some people's minds, there are some in the black culture that consider him a "sellout." but there has to be trailblazers. jellsee owens, the great our-time medalist in munich, germany, was a trailblazer for the opportunity that many of our black athletes get together f. we don't get the platform, we don't get the opportunity. >> tell me a little bit about some of the negative impact of their decisions. >> sure, this was a life or death -- these protests were life or death.

tommy smith -- one little known fact is in mexico city, mexico, 400 college students who were protesting the mexican government had been slaughtered and buried right outside the mexico city olympic stadium, where tommy smith and john carlos would later protest. they had been threatened. black cats had been thrown, murdered black cuts, strangled black cats had been thrown into the dorm where they stayed in mexico city. they expected, according to john carlos, they expected to be assassinated. and i say this in my book, when john carlos lifted his hand, he expected to be shot. he not only expected -- they not only endured that process, but it cost them thousands, millions maybe. john carlos ended up doing menial jobs. one of the athletes' wife committed suicide as a result of the impact.

harry atwood, his relationship with carlos and smith broke because he did not go to the medal stand protest in mexico city. so relationship were broken. there was money that was lost. i think today, as kind of a followup to that question, that many athletes do not -- black athletes do not protest today because the black athlete of that day was less concerned about the money they made, but more concerned about the future of their culture. today, many black athletes are so in love with the income that they might lose, that is the reason, in my view, that many black athletes today do not stand like lebron james. now, lebron james, it can be argued that lebron james -- if he lost a lot of money, he still had more than other people. to lose any of your money is your right. he doesn't have to do that. he's choosing to do that, a plaud him for it. a plaud kaepernick for what he's doing. but one has to make a decision, culture or cash.

>> and why did you decide to write this book? >> i wrote this book because i was trying to participate in an ongoing discourse that i felt was being shaped by our current administration, the politics of today, and i wanted to do my share to stop that. i want the history, the foundational person who functioned in painful social spaces, to be heard. i wanted these bricks in the wall of protest for black males to be remembered. i didn't want jack johnson to go unheralded. i didn't want bill russell's work to be forgotten. i didn't want jesse owens to be thrown aside. i didn't want people to forget about tommy smith, even though there's the 50-year anniversary of the medal stand protest. i did not want lebron james, colin kaepernick, eric reid to

be the face of a historical movement, and that's what african-american male protests did. it's an historical movement. >> i thank you for speaking with us. >> thank you. >> this weekend on "american history tv," this evening at 4:30 eastern, scholars on the history of u.s. policy towards iran and iran's nuclear program. and at 6:00, historian dan albert talks about his book "are we there question: the american automobile past, present, and driverless." explore our nation's past on "american history tv" every eekend on c-span3. >> the c-span cities steuer exploring the american story. join us the first and third weekends of each month as we take book tv and american history tv on the road, to watch videos from any of the places we've been, go to