The trailblazing Black football players that history books forgot

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You've likely heard the names of Ruby Bridges, Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall — the first African Americans to desegregate public schools, baseball and the Supreme Court. But do you know the names of Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Marion Motley or Bill Willis? Unless you're a football fan, you likely haven't. And that's what Keyshawn Johnson is trying to rectify in his book The Forgotten First, the story of the men who helped break the NFL's color barrier. NPR's A Martinez sat down with Johnson to discuss those four men, and the legacy they left behind.

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Book of the Day from NPR. I'm Andrew Limbaung. Unspoken rules influence so much of our lives,
0:08.9	from how you order something at the sandwich spot to the big structural mechanisms of race and class and gender.
0:16.8	Football is no different. For about a decade between the 1930s and 1940s,
0:22.6	there was an unspoken rule preventing black people from playing in the NFL,
0:27.4	until four guys came in and broke it.
0:30.0	Kishon Johnson's book, The Forgotten First, is about these men.
0:33.7	And he talked with NPR's A. Martinez about why they were forgotten.
0:37.2	This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. and he talked with NPR's A. Martinez about why they were forgotten.
0:43.5	This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise,
0:49.1	you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's Apply. This message comes from the Dateline original podcast, Deadly Engagement.
0:57.5	Join Josh Mankowitz as he tells a twisted story of sex, lies, and betrayal that will keep you guessing until the very end.
1:04.6	Search deadly engagement to follow now.
1:07.6	We'd like to introduce you to four men who changed American history.
1:11.2	Now, most of us have read about Jackie Robinson, how he broke baseball's color line in 1947.
1:16.8	But these four men did the same thing in pro football one year earlier.
1:22.5	Their names, Marian Motley, Bill Willis, Woody Strode, and Kenny Washington.
1:27.9	How good was Kenny Washington?
1:30.1	He was the first African-American, All-American in UCLA's history in 1939.
1:35.8	You know, he went on to become first African-American player to end the ban on blacks being able to play in the National Football League.
1:43.8	Super Bowl champion wide receiver, Keishon Johnson, is one of the authors of a new book,
1:48.6	The Forgotten First, which tells a story of those four men.
1:51.7	And when we spoke, he reminded me that there were black players in the then fledgling NFL
	...

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