We understand it was a long hard fight. To just be looked at as a human being, and not just property was only the beginning. We know that it was painful to be stripped from your way of life and your families to something unknown. We are grateful that you risked everything to give yourselves and those of us to come an opportunity to have equality on the courts and in the playing fields. We greatly appreciate the sacrifices that you made back then. We know now that because of you we can. Special thanks go out to those amazing athletes such as:
Flo Hyman, thank you for being the first female African American volleyball player. We appreciate your strive for excellence, as you accomplished so much and received lots of honors throughout your lifetime. Earl L. Loyd, along with the original Harlem Globetrotters, Charles ‘Chuck’ Henry Cooper and Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton for becoming the first male African American basketball players. To Earl L. Lloyd specifically, thank you for your service to our country, and for breaking not one but two boundaries, as you also became the first African American head NBA Coach. Thank you to our very own Lynette Woodard for becoming the first Female African American Harlem Globetrotter. Thank you for your dedication and relentless drive to create a better future for yourselves and for those of us who were yet to come. Your perseverance is very much appreciated. You helped African Americans everywhere believe they, too, can be exactly what they want to be in a man’s world.
A thanks is in order for Frederick Douglass ‘Fritz’ Pollard. Thank you for becoming the First NFL head coach. Although you and your team weren’t treated as you rightly deserved, we appreciate the sacrifices you made to produce such greatness. Kenny Washington and Jasmine Plummer for becoming the first football players. Thank you, Kenny Washington, for both breaking the race boundary in the NFL and for your service for our country, though it was a small amount of time. Thank you, Jasmine Plummer, for breaking more than one boundary, by becoming the first female quarterback and also becoming the first female to play football. Thank you both for showing us that despite your skin color, that we too can rise over adversity.
Thank you to Jackie Robinson and Toni Stone the first baseball players. Robinson became the first African American MLB player. Thank you to more first, such as George Poage for being the first to compete in the Olympic Games and win two bronze medals. Stone broke more than one boundary in her lifetime. She became the first female African American baseball player, and she was the very first female to play a man’s sport. Thank you to Jack Johnson for being the first Heavyweight boxing champion. John Taylor for being the first to win an Olympic gold medal. Lucy Diggs Slowe for being the first woman to win a major league sports title. Sherman Maxwell the first sportscaster. Alice Coachman the first woman to win Olympic gold medal. Among these individuals many of them are in a Hall of Fame and or other forms of high honor, including but not limited to, Earl Lloyd (2003), Nat Clifton (shrine in 2014), Lynette Woodard (2004), Frederick Douglass (Memorabilia 1964), Kenny Washington (UCLA 1956), Jasmine Plummer (Movie Longshots starring Ice Cube & Keke Palmer), Jackie Robinson (1962), Toni Stone (Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and Sudafed International Women’s Hall of Fame in 1987). To those listed and to all who weren’t listed, thank you so much for the sacrifices that you’ve all made. You have all changed the game so that those of us yet to come could have a chance at greatness
