The First Black Footballer
Arthur Wharton, 1865-1930 - An Absence of Memory

Arthur Wharton was the world's first black professional footballer, and the first African to play professional cricket in Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. This is a biography of Arthur, set in the cultural and political context of Victorian England.

Arthur Wharton was the world's first black professional footballer, and the first African to play professional cricket in Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. Those promoting Empire as an expression of white supremacy found him a supreme irritation, and he eventually died in poverty.

Rising North Star - Darlington and football, 1884-88
the burning black star of amateur football, 1885-87
the long and short of Yorkshire and pedestrianism, 1888-89
running, athletics and people
"the best team in the world"
"Wharton for England"
another field of play -ethnicity, identity and family
professional footballer -Rotherham Town and Sheffield United, 1889-95
"lionised" rebel - Lancashire, 1896-1902
the all-rounder - cricket, rugby, and cycling
the making of the sportsman
Methodism, family and community in mid-19th century Gold Coast
class, ethnicity and memory - the selective approach to history.