Juneteenth and Soccer: A History of the Present

By Dr. Jermaine Scott and Allen Hopkins Jr. 

There’s an unmistakable relationship between Juneteenth and soccer. Following the announcement of General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas in 1865, African Americans found themselves in an impossible situation. To echo the words of Saidiya Hartman, they were free from slavery, but free of resources. In the years following the end of chattel slavery, the United States created a form of popular culture that constructed racist representations of African Americans, particularly as free persons. Popularly known as blackface or minstrel shows, white Americans dressed up and performed as exaggerated and racist expressions of African Americans, both as a form of racist comedy but also as a form of commentary.

According to this form of popular culture, African Americans were physically, mentally, and culturally unfit for American citizenship. In short, blackface was a way to further dehumanize Black Americans. Minstrelsy, however, was not limited to theatrical performances. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, printing companies like Harper’s Weekly and Currier and Ives, published racist lithographic prints that helped popularize the idea that African Americans were not ready, and in fact, not worthy of freedom and citizenship.

In the late 1870s, Currier and Ives published a new comic series, entitled “Darktown” which was meant to represent an all-black community. The racism behind Darktown is immediately evident as African Americans are depicted as happy go lucky, unassuming, and uneducated. In 1888, Currier and Ives depicted a group of African American soccer players in a two-part series entitled, “Grand Football Match – Darktown against Blackville. A Scrimmage,” and “Grand Football Match-Darktown against Blackville. A Kickoff.” In these images, we don’t simply have one of the earliest depictions of African American soccer players, but more importantly, we have an early iteration of how the United States would go on to describe Black footballers.

Fig. 1: Grand Football Match-Darktown Against Blackville. A Kickoff. Library of Congress.

To be sure, these images are racist caricatures of African Americans. But they also reveal how the American public thought about Black soccer players. The series features two all-Black teams, Darktown and Blackville (a reference to a similar anti-black comic series published by Harper’s Weekly), playing soccer, or football, in an open field with two unnetted goals. Both teams are depicted as unorganized, inexperienced, and incapable of playing a soccer match. The players are illustrated as having elongated limbs, large and exaggerated lips, dirty and destroyed uniforms, and a general lack of knowledge about the sport itself.  

Fig. 2: Grand Football Match-Darktown Against Blackville. A Scrimmage. Library of Congress.

If Juneteenth is meant to celebrate the significance of emancipation, then it is also about the significance of how African Americans experienced that freedom. Indeed, sports were one way that Black Americans enjoyed said freedom. 

The history of U.S. popular culture, however, has constructed racist stereotypes about the mental and physical capability of African American athletes. Racist comic series like the Currier and Ives’s “Grand Football Match” reinforces the idea that Black footballers are incapable of playing soccer at a high level. 

This is, of course, a lie. 

Black communities in the United States have always used soccer to not only enjoy their free time, but also to fight for civil and human rights. While sports like baseball, football, and basketball have historically been more popular amongst African Americans, there is evidence that soccer is another sport that has historical significance for Black communities in the United States. In the 1930s, an all-Black soccer club in Harlem, New York, known as the Falcons, were part of a Communist sports league called the Labor Sports Union (LSU). During the 1930s, the LSU held a number of demonstrations to support the cause of the Scottsboro Boys – nine African American boys who, in 1931, were wrongly accused of raping two white women on a train outside of Scottsboro, Alabama. The Communist Party’s legal arm, the International Legal Defense (ILD), defended the Scottsboro Boys and launched an international campaign for their release. In 1932, the LSU held a 2.5 mile “Free the Scottsboro Run” in Harlem which was their largest demonstration. It is one of the earliest examples that illustrates how Black communities in the U.S. used soccer to fight for their freedom. 

Later, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Black footballers would be central to elevating soccer to the highest levels of professionalism in the United States. The career of Lincoln Phillips is instructive, to consider how soccer served as a space to think about Black freedom, not simply in the U.S., but globally. A native of Trinidad, Phillips was the first Black coach of a professional soccer team in the United States when he took charge of the Washington Darts as player-coach from 1968-1970. During his tenure, he won the American Soccer League (ASL) two times in a row in 1968 and 1969, and narrowly lost to Rochester Lancers (4-3 on aggregate) in the North American Soccer League (NASL) championships in 1970. Importantly, all of Phillips’ teams were racially diverse with a core of star players from across the African Diaspora. 

In 1971, Phillips became head coach of the Howard University soccer team, where he coached all-Black teams made up of players from the Caribbean, Africa, and yes, even the United States. In his first year as head coach, in what has become famous in Black soccer history, Howard University became the first HBCU to win the NCAA Division 1 Soccer Championship when they defeated St. Louis University, the perennial powerhouse of the sport. The NCAA went on to strip the university from their title because of eligibility concerns with some of their players—a decision that many at the time, and contemporarily, considered to be racially motivated. Nevertheless, Phillips and Howard University would continue their fight and eventually won the 1974 NCAA Soccer Championship, two titles in four years. Importantly, Phillips and the players were very explicit about what their team and victory meant for Black people. It was an example of how soccer continued to serve as a space for civil and human rights, and the significance of diasporic exchange. 

Fast forward to 2024

Black players and coaches in the United States continue to excel in the sport and find innovative ways to combat the persistence of racial injustice. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black players in Major League Soccer (MLS) organized a powerful demonstration that declared they had had enough. Raising their black-gloved fists as they surrounded a soccer pitch during the first match of the 2020 season, they announced the creation of Black Players for Change (BPC), an organization meant to fight racism on and off the pitch. Since then, BPC has committed themselves to community and anti-racist initiatives. Similarly, the creation of the Black Women’s Player Collective (BWPC), an organization of Black women professional soccer players in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) have consistently fought at the intersection of racism and sexism inside and outside of the stadium. 

BPC and BWPC are engaged in their respective league’s inclusion, engagement and advancement initiatives standing shoulder to shoulder, committed to centering the lives and experiences of Black people on and off the pitch. 

This is what Juneteenth and soccer have in common. 

A space to imagine and demand freedom. The best is ahead!