The challenges of our circumstances are diverse and dynamic. Our struggle, therefore, must be multi-faceted and perpetual – and there are no final victories!

- Dr. Harry Edwards

Raised fists. Bent knees. Collective walkouts. Too often, athletic protests are treated as abnormal, one-off events instead of as enduring threads at the intersection of activism and sports. To understand contemporary athletic activism – from the beginning of the Take a Knee movement in 2016 to the widespread athletic walkouts of 2020 – we must understand them in the context of history and culture.

On Monday, November 16, revolutionary activist and scholar Dr. Harry Edwards, who established sports sociology as a field of study and has had a hand in many of the most widely recognized sports protests of our time, will join ESPN analyst and athlete LaChina Robinson for a captivating conversation about sports activism and how athletes can wield their power to create positive social change.

This online event will be livestreamed for the public. Please RSVP for livestream details.

About the Speakers

Harry Edwards (born November 22, 1942) is an African-American sociologist. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University and is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Edwards' career has focused on the experiences of African-American athletes and he is a strong advocate of black participation in the management of professional sports. He has served as a staff consultant to the San Francisco 49ers football team and to the Golden State Warriors basketball team. He has also been involved in recruiting black talent for front-office positions in major league baseball.

Author of The Revolt of the Black Athlete, Edwards was the architect of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which led to the Black Power Salute protest by two African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both San Jose State College athletes, at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Years earlier, Edwards had been a discus thrower on the San Jose State track team.

The New York Times Magazine wrote that Edwards "has seen himself as one who provokes and incites others to action, a reformer, not a revolutionary. And indeed, no other single figure in sports has done as much to make the country aware that the problems of the larger culture are recapitulated in sports, that the arena is no sanctuary from drugs, racism and corruption."

Edwards told Time magazine that he "wants to serve as a role model—the promising athlete who gave up the possibility of a career in professional sports to become a scholar instead." "We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open," he said. "The chances of your becoming a Jerry Rice or a Magic Johnson are so slim as to be negligible. Black kids must learn to distribute their energies in a way that's going to make them productive, contributing citizens in an increasingly high-technology society.

In 1989, Edwards drew criticism for scheduling a midterm examination for one of his classes on Yom Kippur.

In 2014, the University of Texas at Austin established a lecture forum in Edwards' name, the "Dr. Harry Edwards Lectures on Sport and Society". However, in 2016, Edwards rescinded all association and affiliation with the lecture forum as a result of the implementation of the State of Texas "campus concealed carry law" at the university.

LaChina Robinson serves as an analyst for ESPN’s WNBA and College Women’s Basketball coverage. Robinson is also the host of espnW’s podcast “Around The Rim” which was chosen as one of the best sports podcasts of 2017 by Sports Illustrated. In 2018 Robinson Co-Founded “Rising Media Stars” a mentor lead training program for women of color that want to work in sports broadcasting. Also in 2018 Robinson was the recipient of the Dawn Staley Excellence in Broadcasting Award.

About the Game Changers

The Game Changers event series creates space for in-depth conversations between nationally renowned activists and thought leaders to explore the social inequities at the intersection of race, sports and communication and examine the role of athletic activism on impacting social and racial injustices, and ultimately social policies.