Credit: Courtesy of the John Mosley Collection, Courtesy Charles L. Blockson Afro American Collection, Temple University
The largest and longest-running track meet in the world, the Penn Relays have been racially integrated since the running of the first races in 1895. In the 1950s and 1960s, the pride of African American spectators spilled over into an enormous block party that floated through Philadelphia's black communities on carnival weekends. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Wilma Rudolph would win three gold medals, in the 100 m, 200 m, and the 4 x 100 m relay.
