20th-century African-American sportspeople

Cornelius Cooper "Corny" Johnson (August 28, 1913 – February 15, 1946) was an American athlete in the high jump. Born in Los Angeles in 1913, Johnson first competed in organized track and field events at Berendo Junior High School. He achieved greater athletic success as a student at Los Angeles High School, competing in the sprint and in the high jump. Before going to the Olympics as a junior, he won the CIF California State Meet in 1932. He had been second the year before. In 2016, the 1936 Olympic journey of the eighteen Black American athletes, including Johnson, was documented in the film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.

Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch", "Mac" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a member of the San Francisco Giants for whom he played for 19 seasons. McCovey also played for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics in the latter part of his MLB career.
He was a fearsome left-handed power hitter. At the time of his retirement in 1980, McCovey ranked second only to Babe Ruth in career home runs among left-handed batters and seventh overall. As of 2022, he ranks 20th overall on baseball's all-time home run list, tied with Ted Williams and Frank Thomas. He was a six-time All-Star, three-time home run champion, MVP, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986 in his first year of eligibility, only the 16th man so honored, at the time.
McCovey was known as a dead-pull line drive hitter, causing some teams to employ a shift against him. McCovey was called "the scariest hitter in baseball" by pitcher Bob Gibson, seconded by similarly feared slugger Reggie Jackson. McCovey hit 521 home runs, 231 of them in Candlestick Park, the most in that park by any player. A home run he hit on September 16, 1966, was described as the longest ever hit in that stadium.

Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. A four-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Antonio Robert Daniels (born March 19, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the television color analyst for the New Orleans Pelicans on Bally Sports New Orleans and co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

Eddie Locke Jr. (January 13, 1923 – March 2, 1992) was an American Negro league outfielder between 1943 and 1950.
A native of Gatesville, Texas, Locke made his Negro leagues debut in 1943 with the Cincinnati Clowns and the Kansas City Monarchs. He went on to play several seasons with the Monarchs, and also played for the New York Black Yankees. Locke played minor league baseball in the 1950s, including stints with the Springfield Giants and Vancouver Capilanos, and three seasons with the Amarillo Gold Sox. He died in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1992 at age 69.

John "Big" Chisum (April 5, 1915 – August 5, 1982), also listed as John Chism, was an American baseball third baseman in the Negro leagues. He played with the St. Louis Stars in 1937.
His brother, Eli, also played in the Negro leagues. and his statistics are combined with John's in some sources.

Horace Edwin Jarnigan (August 23, 1909 – November 1977) was an American Negro league outfielder in the 1930s.
A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Jarnigan played for the Homestead Grays in 1934. In five recorded games, he posted two hits in 13 plate appearances. Jarnigan died in New Kensington, Pennsylvania in 1977 at age 68.

Emmett Littleton Ashford (November 23, 1914 – March 1, 1980), nicknamed Ash, was the first African American umpire in Major League Baseball, working in the American League from 1966 to 1970.

Claude Patterson (born July 8, 1941) is an American retired professional wrestler, ring name Thunderbolt Patterson. He began his career in 1964 and wrestled primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. During the early 1970s, he was blacklisted by the National Wrestling Alliance for repeated appearances with independent promotions, complaints of institutional racism and attempts to form a wrestlers' labor union.

James Emerson Delaney (August 12, 1924 – June 25, 1947), known professionally as Jimmy Doyle, was a welterweight boxer who died later in the hospital after a boxing match with Sugar Ray Robinson.