Barry Beckham, a writer influenced by Franz Kafka and Ralph Ellison, authored "Runner Mack," considered the first African-American baseball novel, blending themes of racial struggle and Kafkaesque universal injustice in the story of Henry Adams, a Black baseball player facing endless trials and shattered dreams.

Bayard Rustin, an African American civil rights leader, was a prominent advocate for Israel and condemned the Black Power movement's embrace of the Palestinian cause.