We Will Win The Day examines the intersection of activism and athletics

Recently reissued in paperback, Louis Moore’s We Will Win The Day is a comprehensive and informative book on the history of athlete activists

Anyone fighting for justice stands on the shoulders of those who have come before – ancestors who have opened doors and created wedges so that descendants may continue their journey. Knowing their stories is therefore important as their lives and activities may provide lessons and inspiration that can help today’s freedom fighters. In the world of sports, many of these forerunners, such as Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali, are well known, while many others have been unfortunately forgotten.

A fuller history, one that shines light on those lesser-known pioneers, has emerged in Louis Moore’s book, We Will Win The Day, which “explores the relationship between black athletes and the black community in the fight for fairness in sports during the civil rights movement,” between 1945 and 1968. It is a very informative addition to the literature on the intersections of athletics and activism and will delight anyone eager to learn more about those who helped lay the groundwork for today’s activist athletes.

According to Moore, throughout the Civil Rights Movement, sports “represented tangible proof that democracy would triumph over discrimination” while also providing evidence that whites were capable of accepting Black people. There was a belief and a hope that if white baseball fans could celebrate someone like Willie Mays, then they could “eventually see the good in all black Americans.” Things were, of course, not quite that simple. Progress was more halting and the history, as Moore reveals, has only been half-told.

We Will Win The Day goes beyond just the familiar stories of athlete activists

Moore examines this period through a series of different lenses. In one chapter, he highlights “white allies” such as Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, and Paul Brown. Doing so, he shows how such allies “served as a reminder in a Jim Crow society that white people could do the right thing and move past race and racism.” It also demonstrates the way that Black athletes themselves, and their achievements, can be “overshadowed by the need to highlight white allies.” In another chapter, he looks at the Black press and how they played a role in breaking down barriers by using ”the rhetoric of democracy and equality to hold America to the flames of freedom.” Moore primarily relies on these Black newspapers as his sources throughout the book, bringing lots of new quotes and opinions that have been neglected by other historians. He also looks at the battles to desegregate teams, leagues, and athletic facilities in a number of different contexts including the American Bowling Congress, Little League in South Carolina, and The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

When looking at more well-known figures, Moore places them in a larger context, presenting them in a new light. For example, when writing about Wilma Rudolph, she is considered alongside other Olympic athletes who had to weigh the question of what it meant to represent a nation that did not honor their rights. Similarly, Muhammad Ali’s opposition to the Vietnam War and the 1968 protests by Tommie Smith and John Carlos are seen alongside other events that exemplified “the Revolt of the Black Athlete.” Also by focusing on the intellectual and political development of athletes such as Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, and Jim Brown, Moore shows that this movement was not a monolith. In the process, each of their views gain depth through the comparison.

Today, athletes are re-emerging as activists in a way that they had not been for several decades following the Civil Rights Movement. What has changed? Moore sees the activist athletes of past and present as both being “buoyed by a larger civil rights movement,” with today’s Black Lives Matter movement encouraging athletes to use their voice, many of whom may not have done so otherwise. Moore asks, “how could they stay silent while their brothers and sisters risked their lives while fighting for justice?” He also notes how Black sportswriters “prodded, pleaded, and pushed athletes to get involved,” continuing the legacy of their ancestors. From the time of Joe Louis to that of Jim Brown, the idea of what it meant to be an elite Black athlete transitioned from a “model of shut up and play to one that required activism.” We are now witnessing a similar transition.

In Moore’s eyes, the key difference today is the involvement of Black women. While there were “major heroines” in the past such as Althea Gibson and Wilma Rudolph, women athletes were marginalized within the Civil Rights Movement just as they were outside of it. Today, however, women have firmly established themselves as not only participants in the modern movement, but as leaders. While NBA players have garnered much more publicity for their work, none have walked away from their sports to work for justice full-time as their women counterparts Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery have done. This is not to denigrate what men have done, but to uplift and refocus attention on the women who have helped lead the way in the last several years while receiving far less attention and recognition for their work.

The thoroughness Moore employs in this book may be the thing to potentially turn off casual readers. Moore treats each topic exhaustively and while this is a laudable characteristic and assures that this will be a work used by any other writer who wishes to tread similar ground, it does not always make for the most enjoyable reading experience. The writing style is unadorned, more concerned with the accurate presentation of facts than storytelling. That said, as someone who has read several books about the intersection of sports and the struggle for Civil Rights, there are few that I have learned more from.

We Will Win the Day was originally published in 2017, in the immediate aftermath of Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protests. It was recently reprinted in a new paperback edition late last year and has only become more relevant and important in the years since its original publication. This book is a huge addition to the scholarship on the intersection of sports and social justice. Rather than telling the same stories, it introduces new ones and places already well-known ones in a broader context. While the book may be a bit too comprehensive for casual readers, for scholars and those wanting to dive deeper into the history of athlete activism, it is hard to imagine many recent works that are more informative or illuminating.