Better than the Best: Black Athletes Speak, 1920-2007

Mal Whitfield: Track and Field

23 Mal Whitfield Track and Field March 23–24, 1994 Washington, D.C. “Marvelous Mal” Whitfield was the first African American to win the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award (1954), an honor bestowed on the top amateur athlete in America by the United States Amateur Athletic Union. At the 1948 Olympics, Sgt. Whitfield of the U.S. Air Force won the gold medal in the 800 meters, setting an Olympic record, and earned another gold medal in the 4 x 400-meter relay. He was the first American ever to win a gold medal for the U.S. Armed Forces while on active duty. Whitfield repeated his performance in the 800 meters at the 1952 Olympics, ending his Olympic career with a third gold medal. His athletic achievements also included an Olympic silver medal, an Olympic bronze medal, three Pan American gold medals, six world records, and eight National Amateur Athletic Union titles. He was inducted into the U.S.A. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1988. Mal Whitfield joined the air force in 1943 and became a member of the prestigious Tuskegee airmen squad, the first African American flyers to serve in a war. In 1947, Whitfield was invited to participate in the newly formed Cultural Exchange Program by the United States Information Agency. The program was designed to incorporate sports in America’s international initiatives. During his decades-long career for the U.S. Foreign Service, he traveled to over a hundred countries and trained some of Africa’s greatest athletes, including Olympic gold medalists Mamo Wolde and Meruts Yifter. He served on the Youth Advisory Committee during 24 mal whitfield President Eisenhower’s administration, and represented President Nixon at the 1972 Olympics. Whitfield retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1989. He continues to promote international harmony through sports, academics , and culture with his nonprofit organization, the Mal Whitfield Foundation.1 Childhood I was born in Texas on October 11, 1924, on a ranch owned and operated by my family. It was near Wharton, and had been handed down for generations . I left there when I was four years old after my father died in a truck accident. My sister sent for my mother and me to come to California. My mother died when I was eleven, and my sister raised me after that. I grew up in Los Angeles, and I did all my schooling in southern California. As a child and young adult, I was not really aware of racial limitations. I attended Thomas Jefferson High School, which was mixed. There were Chinese and Japanese students until we entered the war. We had whites of many nationalities and ethnicities. And of course we also had lots of Mexicans, blacks, and Filipinos. It was a multiracial school, and the teachers were black and white. We had harmony, and everybody was supportive of one another. I spoke Spanish at a very young age because I associated with Mexicans . I can still see Papacita out there in the field in his little local garden , cutting cantaloupes from the vine and selling watermelons on the Imperial Highway. I remember working for him one summer. He gave me twenty-five cents a week, and all the watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and corn I could eat. I ate so much corn, I got sick! There was, however, one racist incident I experienced when I lived down in Watts, California. I went to a store and asked for a job. The white shopkeeper lived in Fairfax, way over on the other side of town, and he owned this store down on 103rd Street. I went in and asked for a job when I was around thirteen years old, and he told me to sweep the sun off the sidewalk. I didn’t understand what he meant at first. I grabbed the broom he gave me and went outside. I came back in and said, “Mister, I can’t sweep the sun off the sidewalk.” He said,” Well, I don’t have any jobs for niggers.” I hadn’t heard that word much up to that point. Coming from a mixed family, that word was just never used. By the time I entered high school, I was good in almost every sport. mal whitfield 25 I was good at playing baseball and softball. I had good hands for...