Lamb’s article, Democracy
on the Field, discussed the segregation of baseball in 1945, when Jackie
Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league club in Montreal. The
article focuses on the beginning, Robinson’s first spring training with the
team, and how this monstrous event was covered by black sportswriters, and how
it was covered by white sportswriters, and how their views differed.
Not
surprisingly, black sportswriters saw this event as an enormous victory in the
battle for segregation. They viewed Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier
in baseball as a metaphor for all blacks breaking the barrier of segregation in
America. Black sportswriters across the country recognized the historical
significance of the desegregation of baseball, and reported on it as such.
It was
a little different for white sportswriters, most of whom pretty much ignored
the event all together. They still believed that segregation was necessary, and
refused to even acknowledge the fact that a black player was going to play
professional baseball. In the article, Lamb talks about an event where a bunch
of sportswriters from New York had a dinner, and a skit was acted out painting
Jackie Robinson in a bad light. This was just one was that white sportswriters
denounced the desegregation of baseball.
The
second article, written by David Wiggins, discusses the role that Wendell Smith
and the Pittsburgh Courier-Journal had on the desegregation of baseball. While
there were other black newspapers at the time, the Courier-Journal was the most
read, and the most influential on getting baseball to allow black players. Jackie
Robinson has even gone on record to say that Wendell Smith, a writer for the
Courier-Journal, was the main reason he was signed by Branch Rickey and the
Dodgers organization in 1945,
In
1933, the Courier-Journal began their battle towards desegregation in baseball,
but it wasn’t until the employed Wendell Smith that the fight really took off.
Smith took a strong stance, even going as far as to tell blacks to stop
attending baseball games. He said why should they be spending their hard earned
money to watch a game that their own people aren't allowed to be included in?
Smith also was instrumental in the formation of the NAACP. While blacks as
individuals weren't going anywhere, by forming a group, they would be able to
fight harder for what they believed in. It is amazing to see that one man and
one newspaper could be so influential in changing the game of baseball.
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