No Missouri Compromise Bates Must Play
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
notes: label: Description
content: Round collegiate pin-back button is white with blue printing, "No Missouri Compromise Bates Must Play."
label: Description
content: This is a button from the 1940 student led protest of the N.Y.U. football program holding star fullback, Leonard Bates, out of the coming contest against the University of Missouri. The students, known as the Bates Seven, were suspended from N.Y.U. for three months due to the protests.
label: Description
content: Bates was being held out of the game due to a "gentlemen's agreement" between teams, in which opposing teams would sit their own black players against teams that had racist policies against fielding black athletes.
label: Description
content: The N.Y.U. football team began play in 1873 but ended the program permanently in 1952. The team was known as the NYU Violets.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: level of sport
content: College
label: name of sport
content: Football
label: web subject
content: African American History
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Col. Donald A. Seibert
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0210.34
label: accession number
content: 1986.0210
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0210.34
objectType: label: Object Name
content: button
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel; brass; paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: enamel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in; x 5.08 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/8 in x 1 1/4 in x 1/4 in; 3.4925 cm x 3.175 cm x .635 cm