THE STRUGGLE THAT MUST BE: An Autobiography

by Harry Edwards ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 28, 1980

Not the account of the personal struggle that the author's name promises--and this is unfortunate, for Professor Edwards (Sociology, Univ. of California, Berkeley) does have significant things to say regarding blacks in sports and in academe: he helped organize the threatened black boycott of the 1968 Olympics; he was a graduate student at Cornell at the time of the protest there, and he won his tenure at Berkeley when a special administration committee overruled his department. But throughout, from Edwards' East St. Louis ghetto origins to his reflections on Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics, the rhetoric repeatedly overpowers the story, detracting from points that would stand better on their own. This happens least in the section on the boycott, which is further strengthened by the presentation of documents obtained from Edwards' FBI file. Indeed, shortly after the boycott was announced in the fall of 1967, the FBI took an active interest in Edwards, including him on its ""Rabble-Rouser Index,"" monitoring his lecture tour, and planting ""students"" in his classes at San Jose State. The newspaper reaction to the proposed boycott was equally paranoid--""Mob Rule in Los Angeles: 200 Negroes Vote Unanimously to Boycott Games""--and Avery Brundage, then president of the International Olympic Committee, couldn't see the sense to it at all (""Why, the Olympic Games are the only place in the world where people like Negroes and Communists can compete on an equal footing with everybody else!""). The boycott fizzled in the end, but did inspire the raised-fist protest on the victory platform. From this and other experiences in the world of organized sports, Edwards concludes that ""any attack upon the sports institution of a society is intuitively and widely regarded as an attack upon the most central and preeminent values and beliefs of that society""; and he also cautions blacks against becoming swept up in a rags-to-riches-through-sports dream. Clearsighted points, those, but thrown in with them we have Professor Edwards lecturing on Native Americans and Third World elites, hair-straightening and religious cults. A consequential personal story, an extremely uneven book.

Pub Date: Nov. 28, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION