Black Champions; Interview with Jim Brown (1985)

Raw Footage Interview with Jim Brown conducted for Black Champions Series. Discussion centers on playing football at both the college and professional levels, as well as his activism for civil rights. One of the greatest football players ever, he was also an actor and activist - speaking out on civil rights, and pushing other black athletes to do the same. Discussion starts with Jim Brown upbringing. Mr. Brown credits his self-reliance to having grown up on Saint Simons Island, a community off the coast of Georgia where he was raised by his grandmother and where racism did not affect him directly. At the age of eight, he moved to Manhasset, New York, on Long Island, where his mother worked as a domestic. It was at Manhasset High School that he became a football star and athletic legend.
Brown was one of the few athletes to speak out on racial issues in the 1950s as the civil rights movement was growing. He was one of the most prominent African American athletes to engage in civil rights activism, and he called on other African American athletes to become involved in similar initiatives off the field. In 1966, Brown founded the Negro Industrial Economic Union, later known as the Black Economic Union (BEU), to help promote economic opportunities for minority owned businesses.Perceiving Brown and other outspoken African-American athletes as a threat, the Federal Bureau of Investigation monitored Brown and his organizations. Files declassified in 2003 showed that the FBI, the United States Secret Service, and several police departments had monitored Brown and the Black Economic Union, attempting to smear the group as a source of Communist and radical Muslim extremism and collecting information to damage Brown's reputation.

[@kuronroland4211]

Jim Brown was a serious man

[@Cronellishways]

RIP Jim Brown, you are forever missed.

[@robmezza6003]

Great interview. Jim Brown that sums it up.

[@maureencora1]

He Should Had Been the First African-American to Win the Heisman Trophy. Heaven is for Heroes, May He R.I.P.

[@francokambela7780]

I enjoyed his movies a great actor

[@darrenpicone3214]

Good films bloody good films 💯

[@6dewinter]

A great man

[@jazmyneabbott3273]

WHERE THE WHITE CHAMPIONS OHHHH

[@1pointofviewtv]

They coming soon to theater near you.

[@jazmyneabbott3273]

@@1pointofviewtv na, that would be racist

[@kingyoung3192]

@@1pointofviewtv🤣🤣🤣🤣🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲