Defiance led to tolerance

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 25, 2006 | by Jerry McDonald - STAFF WRITER

CLEM DANIELS is sitting on a bench, enjoying the festivities of the Raider Nation Celebration, talking about the old days of the American Football League.

When asked if contemporary African-American players know of the sacrifices made by their predecessors, Daniels' mood sours for a moment as he offers a dismissive wave of his hand.

"No, they don't," Daniels said. "Absolutely no idea. None whatsoever. Most young players today are out of touch with the AFL history, and they have been for a long time."

Daniels, 69, joined the Raiders in 1961 after playing a season as a defensive back for the Dallas Texans, a franchise which later became the Kansas City Chiefs.

Many African-American athletes found the AFL more willing to provide an opportunity than the established NFL. The Raiders' Al Davis, the Chiefs' Hank Stram and the Chargers' Sid Gillman were among those in the forefront of those actively seeking black talent.

Former Raiders cornerback Howie Williams, who played two seasons in Green Bay (1961-62), said he lived in a renovated barn with five other blacks his first year in Green Bay. He said the racism practiced in the NFL wasn't always overt.

"It was like benign negligence," Williams said. "They just ignored it. It was like, 'As long as guys make out OK, it's fine.'"

Williams remembers getting off a bus in Florida for a preseason game and walking with some of his white teammates toward the team hotel only to be pulled aside."Vince Lombardi called over (defensive end) Willie Davis and told him to talk to me," Williams said. "Willie said we were going to a hotel on the other side of town."

Art Powell, a receiver Davis recently called the "T.O. of his time," was released by the Philadelphia Eagles because he refused to play in a preseason game in Norfolk, Va., where black players stayed in a separate hotel from white players.

When the same thing happened with the AFL New York Titans in Greenville, S.C., Powell again refused to play, although this time he kept his job.

"You used to have guys tell you, 'Look, kid, you've got a lot of athletic ability. Just keep your mouth shut and don't worry about it," Powell said. "I wasn't the lone ranger. There were other guys who stood up."

Daniels was one of those players.

"We had to take stands to break down a lot of the bigotry and things that were going on," Daniels said. "There were still some very segregated cities, and we were confronted with a lot of situations. And that's the best thing I can say about Al Davis -- he backed us."

Davis moved a Raiders preseason game from Mobile, Ala., to Frank Youell Field in Oakland because of the concerns of his African- American players, which included Daniels, Powell, Bo Roberson and Fred Williamson.

He did it despite losing gate receipts for attendance that would have been considerably more than the 8,317 that came to the rescheduled game in Oakland.

In Mobile, the stands were segregated and blacks were not allowed to use the bathroom, Powell said.

Daniels said the black players met and told sportswriters they wouldn't play. He also said he told Davis.

"He said, 'I'll call (AFL Commissioner) Joe Foss and get it changed,'" Daniels said. "Just like that."

Davis, Powell and Daniels were also involved in having the 1965 AFL All-Star Game moved from New Orleans to Houston when 23 black players left town in protest over the way they were treated.

"When we got to New Orleans, I get my luggage, run into the street, hail down a cab, and the driver says, 'I can't take you,'" Powell said. "I said, 'What do you mean, you can't take me?' He says he can only have white customers and that I had to find myself a colored cab. There weren't a hell of a lot of colored cabs at the airport in those days."

"Colored cabs," according to Raiders assistant coach and Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, came with restrictions in terms of where they could and couldn't go.

"They wouldn't go in certain areas," said Brown, who made the All- Star team playing for Denver in 1965. "They'd drop you off."

Black players met at their hotel and signed a legal pad produced by Powell in which they decided not to play.

In the book "America's Game, the Epic Story of how Pro Football Captured a Nation," author Michael MacCambridge writes that city officials produced Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, an African American who would later be the city's first black mayor.

Morial, the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State, told players they were overreacting and defended the New Orleans record on civil rights.

Powell remembers feeling insulted.

"He blamed it all on Dr. (Martin Luther) King, that he was a troublemaker for trying to do change," Powell said. "I told the guy, 'You just blew it. Those were the worst possible combination of words you could have said.'"

Powell said he then got a call from Davis, who said he would see what he could do. Players left New Orleans, and by the time most of them had gotten back home, the game was moved to Houston.

Davis, in an Aug. 1 press conference, talked about how the 1960s affected the Raiders and professional sports.