Like many young black teenagers in the 1950s, Harry Edwards saw sports as an escape from poverty. His father was a $65-a-week laborer who served time in the Illinois state penitentiary. His mother left home when he was eight. At San Jose State young Edwards starred in basketball. But the trappings of racism he found in fraternities, student housing, the faculty and staff radicalized him. By 1967 he was a Black Panther urging fellow black athletes to boycott white-sponsored events, including the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. At Cornell, where he earned a doctorate, Edwards was a mediator in an armed )...
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