Browse Items (73 total)

Don Smith’s account of his youth finished with his recollection of being beaten by police officers, smoking marijuana, and spending time in jail. Olsen then switches back into his primary reporting on Smith’s tenure at Iowa State, but this page…

Olsen turns to the specific cases of Don Smith and Elvin Hayes to illustrate the troubling experiences that black athletes face which are unknown to the white fans they play for. Olsen calls this “a wall of ignorance and unfounded suppositions” which…

On this page, Olsen turns his attention to the other part of the cruel deception: the false promise of success and social uplift that sports provides to black youth. Olsen notes the fall-out from this “meaningless dream” is the emergence of a “new…

On this page, Olsen engages the topic of black collegiate athletes, where he begins to reveal the “cruel deception” of racial opportunity in sports. Olsen traces the path of a black person recruited to a university to play high-level sports. He…

This page opens Part 1 of Jack Olsen’s five-part series on the ‘black athlete’, and it is titled “The Cruel Deception.” Olsen begins the piece by addressing the persistent story of racial opportunity in sports, citing the oft-used phrase “look what…

The prologue to the Black Athlete cover story introduces the story, which probes whether or no sport is “one of the few areas of American society in which the Negro has found opportunity.” The introduction promises to complicate this notion, and…

This SI cover page features art depicting a young black man running towards a hurdle that resembles a road blockade. The background is a close-up of the man's face, his obstacle reflected in dark black sunglasses. The title reads "The Black…

An article detailing the career of Cassius Clay before he became Muhammad Ali.

Ellingson's romantic story dramatizes readers' anxieties about having the requisite beauty and personality traits to succeed in the marriage market. The story advises readers to seek advice from women's magazines; to value (but also be wary of)…

This advertisement draws on the conventions of the advice column and on consumers' deference to medical expertise to promote Noxema face cream. The advertisement also imbues the product with near-magical properties, promising that users will "Feel…