Damion Thomas is the Museum Curator of Sports for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, where he also leads the museum’s Sports and Race Initiative. He earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in United States History at UCLA. Prior to joining the museum, he was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland—College Park and the University of Illinois—Urbana/Champaign. He is the author of Globetrotting: African American Athletes and Cold War Politics, and numerous other articles and op-eds.