"Americans and Their Games" – Sports in American History. Part II: The Tales of Race and Ethnicity
Thursday, April 20
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Jefferson Educational Society
Featuring Andrew Roth, Ph.D.
Almost hiding in plain sight, sports are as important to American culture and history as our political system, our churches, and the media. Sports – "the games Americans play" – are, perhaps to the surprise of some, one of American society's great engines of social progress. In this chapter of his "Americans and Their Games" – Sports in History & Culture, JES Scholar-in-Residence Andrew Roth explores the powerful role sports played in first creating the Jim Crow era and then dismantling it. Meet Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, William Clarence Matthews, Rube Foster, the first African American women's baseball team, the "Dolly Vardens," and as they used to say in Hollywood, "a cast of thousands" transforming American culture and society. While hardly a level playing field, sports is the great social leveler providing opportunity for all. In pursuit of victory, sports in American society became one of the prime engines in The American Tapestry Project's story of the ever-expanding definition of the "We" in "We the People."
Important to Note:
- Location: Jefferson Educational Society -- 3207 State Street, Erie, PA 16508.
- Date/Time: Thursday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m.
- Admission: $10/person or $15 with a guest
"Americans and Their Games" – Sports in American History. Part III: The Tales of Gender and Women's Rights
Thursday, May 18
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Jefferson Educational Society
Featuring Andrew Roth, Ph.D.
Almost hiding in plain sight, sports are as important to American culture and history as our political system, our churches, and the media.
Sports – "the games Americans play" – are, perhaps to the surprise of some, one of American society's great engines of social progress. In this chapter of his "Americans and Their Games," Jefferson Society Scholar-in-Residence Andrew Roth explores the powerful role sports played in women's quest for equality. From Catharine Beecher and "bloomer girls" challenging the 19th century's "The Cult of True Womanhood" to Susan B. Anthony championing bicycling as an expression of female freedom to Hellen Wills Moody and "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias to "A League of Their Own" to Title IX and the rise of women's sports at all levels of American society, learn how sports redefined the meaning of "true womanhood" in American culture. While hardly a level playing field, sport is the great social leveler providing opportunity for all. In pursuit of victory, sports in American society became one of the prime engines in The American Tapestry Project's story of the ever-expanding definition of the "We" in "We the People."
Important to Note:
- Location: Jefferson Educational Society -- 3207 State Street, Erie, PA 16508.
- Date/Time: Thursday, May 18 at 7:00 p.m.
- Admission: $10/person or $15 with a guest
