For centuries sports were dominated by white males and not available to anyone else. During the past hundred years, things have changed. Men of different races, not to mention women of all races, are now participating not only in many sports but in all aspects of life including racially integrated employment and equal opportunity housing. Actually, sports have sort of been the predecessor to crucial parts in America's racial history. Jackie Robinson entered baseball in 1947, eight years before the famous Rosa Parks bus incident.("Race" 1) Also, 1966 was the year that Texas Western won the first national champion in basketball with five black starters. That was a year before Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court.("Race" 1) As one can see, these are just some of the moments in history where sports made an impression on the history of segregation; there are many more. This all leads up to today's world of sports. Racial inequality is not a problem in the world of sports anymore, and no more action need be taken to advance racial equality; it exists already.
On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson played his first game as a Los Angeles Dodger. This would not have been a surprise if he was a white man with the same talent as he had.("Race" 1) The problem was that he was black. Robinson became the first black man to successfully break baseballs color barrier. From then on black men and women began to break barrier after barrier in sports and America. Today most sports superstars are the black men that were once hated in this country. Now though, people have the audacity to say there is racial inequality in sports. Yes, there might be sports where people of certain races have succeeded more than others, but with time those barriers will be broken too. There are already certain examples of this. Tiger Woods is a champion in golf, a game originated by predominately white Scottish people. Arthur Ashe was a legend in tennis, where today black women have already gone farther than black men.