"The 1960s was a transformative period in global history. In the United States, the eras social movements, including Civil Rights, feminism, and environmentalism, changed the political culture and still impact us today. While the most prominent Civil Rights figures and organizations were non-violent and faith-based, people from all walks of life worked toward racial equality. Jim Brown, a first-round NFL draft pick, played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns until 1965. Born in 1936 in Georgia, Brown was a child of the Great Migration and experienced racial discrimination throughout his football career. His desire to work alongside the Civil Rights movement using a different approach than Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X led him to form the Negro Industrial and Economic Union (NIEU) in 1966, later known as the Black Economic Union (BEU). The Union combined elements of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements with a call for Black Americans to accumulate power through participation in the countrys economic infrastructure through entrepreneurship and government programs.

In More Than an Athlete: Jim Brown, Black Capitalism and the Black Economic Union, Robert Bennett, III chronicles the story of the Civil Rights movement from the perspective of Black athletes who were admired as apolitical gladiators and expected to remain silent about the racist reality that permeated every aspect of their lives. Yet professional athletes in the NFL and other sports organizations had a platform and often were unable to maintain political neutrality. Bennett, explores the NIEU to answer larger questions about the role of Black athletes as activists and how the response to these actions impacted their careers and the movement they supported. More Than an Athlete extends the frame of the Civil Rights movement to the football field, Hollywood set, and corporate boardroom. Seeing this book in the years following the famed 1964 meeting of Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Sam Cooke (portrayed in the 2020 film One Night in Miami) and a subsequent, more controversial meeting with Ali in 1967, Bennett, explores how Black professional athletes leveraged their social capital in the fight for Civil Rights throughout the 1960s. Bennett, provides life sketches for important figures of the NIEU, highlights the experiences that shaped their political consciousness, and weaves in the Unions mission and efforts with the ongoing movements of the period. Public displays of activism have transformed since John Carlos and Tommie Smiths Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games. Athletes like Colin Kaepernick, Serena Williams, Lebron James, and Naomi Osaka, following a long history of public defiance, are continually reminded to separate their politics from the game.

A compelling analysis about the intersection of fame, sports, and race, Bennetts project is a thoughtful and timely work on professional athletes sustained contributions to social movements"-- Provided by publisher.