Gerald L. Early, Merle Kling professor of modern letters at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses his cultural observations on African American athletes. Early traverses a number of subjects in his writing, seemingly without effort, from a study of African American rhetoric to a meditation on boxing, from an historical survey of assimilation to an exploration of Motown.
Early is a noted essayist and American culture critic. A professor of English, of African & African American studies and of American culture studies, Early is the author of several books, including *The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting*, *Literature*, and *Modern American Culture*, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He is also editor of numerous volumes, including *This Is Where I Came In: Black America in the 1960s* (2003); *The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader* (2001); *Miles Davis and American Culture* (2001); *The Muhammad Ali Reader *(1998); and *Body Language: Writers on Spor*t (1998). He served as a consultant on Ken Burns' documentary films on baseball and jazz, which both aired on PBS.