African American Athletes at News ConferenceNation's top Negro athletes gathered for a meeting at the Negro Industrial and Economic Union to hear Cassius Clay's view for rejecting Army induction. News conference shows (front row) Bill Russell, Boston Celtics; Cassius Clay; Jim Brown and Lew Alcindor. Back row (left to right): Carl Stokes, Democratic State Rep.; Walter Beach, Cleveland Browns; Bobby Mitchell, Washington Redskins; Sid Williams, Cleveland Browns; Curtis McClinton, Kansas City Chiefs; Willie Davis, Green Bay Packers; Jim Shorter, former Brown and John Wooten, Cleveland Browns. Date: June 04, June 04,1967. Location: Cleveland, Ohio. Image: Bettmann Collection
Former track star Jesse Owens (C) and Cleveland Indians' pitcher Satche Paige (R) are congratulated by Illinois States Attorney John Boyle after they received Ebony Magazine Awards as two of the nation's outstanding African American athletes in 1949. Date: August 20, 1949. Location: Chicago, Illinois. Image: Bettmann Collection
Flanked by athletes who are supporting a boycott of the 1968 Olympic Games, George M. Houser, (3rd left), executive director of the American Committee on Africa, calls for a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in order to reverse its decision readmitting South Africa to the games. Attending press conference here are (left to right): Heyward Dotson, Staten Island, N.Y., Columbia University basketball team; Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, Ghana, Yale University track team; Houser; Steve Mokone, South African soccer player and student at University of Rochester; New York Yankee infielder Ruben Amaro; and New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton. Date: April 11, 1968. Location: New York, New York. Image: Bettmann Collection.
