Edwards' career has focused on the experiences of African-American athletes and he is a strong advocate of black participation in the management of professional sports. He has served as a staff consultant to the San Francisco 49ers football team and to the Golden State Warriors basketball team. He has also been involved in recruiting black talent for front-office positions in Major League Baseball.
The New York Times Magazine wrote that Edwards "has seen himself as one who provokes and incites others to action, a reformer, not a revolutionary. And indeed, no other single figure in sports has done as much to make the country aware that the problems of the larger culture are recapitulated in sports, that the arena is no sanctuary from drugs, racism and corruption."[3]
Edwards told Time magazine that he "wants to serve as a role model—the promising athlete who gave up the possibility of a career in professional sports to become a scholar instead."[4] "We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open," he said. "The chances of your becoming a Jerry Rice or a Magic Johnson are so slim as to be negligible. Black kids must learn to distribute their energies in a way that's going to make them productive, contributing citizens in an increasingly high-technology society."[5]
In 2014, the University of Texas at Austin established a lecture forum in Edwards' name, the "Dr. Harry Edwards Lectures on Sport and Society". However, in the 2016, Edwards rescinded all association and affiliation with the lecture forum as a result of the implementation of the State of Texas "campus concealed carry law" at the university.[6][7]
Playing to Win: A Short Guide to Sensible Black Sports Participation. Berkeley, California: Institute for the Study of Social Change. 1982.
The Revolt of the Black Athlete. With a foreword by Samuel J. Skinner, Jr. Ontario: Collier-Macmillan Limited. 1985. LCCN70085475.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
"For Blacks, a Life in Sports Is No Different From Life: A Reflection of Society A Threat to Survival 'Sporting Chance' Disputed Only the Best Are Kept Neglect of Other Pursuits". The New York Times (sports). May 6, 1979. ISSN0362-4331. ProQuest document ID 120866836ProQuest111167040. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008) (subscription required)
"Educating black athletes". Atlantic Monthly, August 1983, 253(2).
"Black student-athletes: taking responsibility". California Living, 1984; reprinted in Representative American Speeches. W. W. Wilson Co., 1984.
"Perpetuating Illusions". The New York Times, THE WEEK IN REVIEW. May 19, 1985. p. E22. ISSN0362-4331. ProQuest document ID 111167040ProQuest111167040. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008) (subscription required)
^"Free At Last 1960 -1964". Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power» A Historical Athletics Exhibit curated by Urla Hill. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
Ruffin II, Herbert G. (2009-02-17). "Edwards, Harry (1942--)". BlackPast.org Remembered & Reclaimed; An Online Reference Guide to African American History. Retrieved 2012-05-02.