Arthur Wharton was the world's first black professional footballer and 100 yards world record holder, and was probably the first African to play professional cricket in the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. His achievements were accomplished against the backdrop of Africa's forced colonization by European regimes. But while Arthur was beating the best on the tracks and fields of Britain, the peoples of the continent of his birth were being recast as lesser human beings. The tall Ghanaian was an extreme irritation to many white supremacists because his education and sporting triumphs refuted...

Arthur Wharton was the world's first black professional footballer and 100 yards world record holder, and was probably the first African to play professional cricket in the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. His achievements were accomplished against the backdrop of Africa's forced colonization by European regimes. But while Arthur was beating the best on the tracks and fields of Britain, the peoples of the continent of his birth were being recast as lesser human beings. The tall Ghanaian was an extreme irritation to many white supremacists because his education and sporting triumphs refuted...