Download or read book The First Black Footballer written by Phil Vasili and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.