I was checking out roller skating books at Harold Washington Library, and there were very few black people in the few books I found. Bill Butler’s book is the only book that featured black people. Bill is black, by the way. The few books that did highlight black people showed them in the 1970s during the roller disco days. That is NOT when black people started skating, and if I had to rely on the information I found, I would be SOL.
What was worse than those roller skating books were the sports books that did not even acknowledge skating as a sport! What??? This is not looking to good.
When I just Googled roller skating images, there was only one image with black people. This is getting ridiculous.
Do you know what this means? It’s time for me to get busy and make those connections to make sure that our place in roller skating history is known. And to help change the color of those images in Google.
Ok, went through my stash and found a pic with Chocolate People.
Image: Marcie Hill
To anyone reading this post who gets offended, please know that although I am trying to make light of this topic, I am highly perturbed. Imagine trying to find information relevant to your history only to know that you have been intentionally ignored. Actually, I know black people througout history have been ignored, but this is terrible.
Thanks in favor of sharing such a good thinking, article is pleasant,
thats why i have read it entirely
Hello everyone, there is a lot of history in the black community of roller skating! I myself have been in National Roller Skating Championships. There are roller skating events going every month throughout the year. Here are a couple of websites with information on what we do as a black roller skating network!
If you need any more information, just email me!
http://www.skategroove.com/
http://www.AdrenalinAwards.com
http://www.jivebiscuit.com
National African American Roller Skating Archive is on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-African-American-Roller-Skating-Archive/130609746950890
Thanks for sharing these resources, Ms. Raw Talent. I will sign up for updates.
Your very much welcome!
Hi… I found this article while looking up Miss Caroline Mirelli – a lady that I respect and admire), and thought I would get on your list of Blacks in roller sports. There are many more today than when I was a kid, in fact the diversity at our recent 2012 National Championship was amazing.
Check out my bio at my skating site:
http://inlineskating.about.com/bio/Carlesa-Williams-29204.htm
Or a profile at this ice site:
http://figureskating.about.com/od/profilesofadultskaters/p/carlesa.htm
I was never a great champion, but I am a good coach and work hard to bring skaters of all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds together in Southeastern Michigan. My team took 23 skaters to nationals and they came from a combination of Black, Asian, Indian, Russian and more of the American mix. This is a long way from the days when I was not allowed in figure skating classes as a kid.
Anita Armstrong, another Black coach from Chicago, made a bit of history by getting a JB Skater to Nationals in the creative dance event… and even more skaters to transfer skills into other technical events as well.
Troy Tucker, another brother, will represent the United States at the 2012 World Championship in New Zealand this fall.
Feel free to write anytime. I love talking Black skating – current or history.
Carlesa, thanks so much for sharing this information. I’d love to speak with you. I’ll e-mail you so we can schedule a time to speak.
Check it out USAROLLERSPORTS.com I have two of the best skaters on the inline skates and quads they are National champions and well known in the skating world. They skate out of the Southern Region, this year they were voted Skaters of the year. They compete on quads creative solo dance, figures, loops and free style. They are sisters and believe it not twins. The majority of skaters I teach are of color. We also at the National level have Deryrek Jones a wonderful dance skater and a champion. I am the twins coach and most of my skaters are of color. I am Coach Caroline Mirelli of Memmphis, Tn. Come and see us The Memphis Figure Roller skating Club
Caroline, thank you for sharing that information. I will definitely be checking you out soon.
Hello Marcie
I’m the Chicago African American issues examiner. I just recently wrote an article where a I speak about the historical influence black people had on skating and bike riding. And why I’m surprised that more of us don’t get involved in these sports. Yes skating is a sport!!!(i wholeheartedly agree with you)
Here—>http://www.examiner.com/african-american-issues-in-chicago/blacks-outside-the-box-skates-and-bikes
I featured your blog in my article. It’s in a link towards the bottom of the article. I hope you enjoy it. Leave some feed back and tell me what you think.
Peace.
Also do you live in Chicago? You mentioned Harold Washington Library. I love going up there when I get some time.
(sorry if I posted this too many times, I’m not sure if I did it right, never commented on a blog before)
I was also looking for people of color on Google images and luckily I found the pic that you posted! I bookmarked your blog so I can read more of what you have been writing. Thanks for doing what you do.
Tim, thank you so much. I am researching black roller skaters for a project and I’ll be sharing information as I find it.
Funny – that is how I found your blog – looking for images of people of color on skates. sigh.
A friend is holding a 25 year skating reunion in DC this summer and I was helping her create the blog http://skatereunion.blogspot.com . She’s still tied in with lots of skaters.
She directed me to http://www.skategroove.com – I guess they don’t tag or worry about SEO, because they have loads of pics that don’t show up in searches. There is also http://www.sk8photos.com/xoops/ out of Georgia.
I like what you are doing and if you ever decide to write about skaters of color, look me up at 22nd Century Press.
Thank you for stopping through and sharing resources. I have reached out to them and intend to utilize their resources in the near future. Please keep me abreast of the skating reunion, I’d like to attend. You are a blessing!