00:00:01.340 - 00:00:44.520

Yeah, yeah. Mhm. I want to play some ball. Okay. Come morning. Mhm register. Mm. Mhm. Mhm. When baseball was still a very young sport, a group of gentlemen got together in Philadelphia to talk about a problem with the future of the game. The civil War was

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two years passed, and Negroes were beginning to play baseball, the men in Philadelphia or white owners and managers of baseball teams. And they were concerned about the image of their new business. So what they decided was this no dark skinned person would be allowed to play

00:01:02.920 - 00:01:34.030

in their league. It was the beginning of one of the oldest and strongest traditions in baseball. Yeah, yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. 60 years ago in Yankee Stadium, a man named Josh Gibson hit a home run that went completely out of the park. It was the longest

00:01:34.030 - 00:01:56.620

ball ever hit there. But Josh Gibson wasn't a Yankee. In fact, he couldn't get a job anywhere in major league baseball. Not even the lowest minor league team would hire him. Josh Gibson was black. Uh huh. There was no rule or law against blacks and baseball.

00:01:56.630 - 00:02:16.400

This is what they called a gentleman's agreement. and baseball could get away with it because most of America was already segregated from public schools in Georgia. Public pools in California, right? This is a story about black men who would not let racism stop them from playing

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baseball. They started their own teams, even their own leagues, and they made their own legends. And because of these proud men, young black boys could still dream of the thrill of the crowd and the crack of the bat. One of those proud men was Buck O'Neil,

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the All Star first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs, a living legend of black baseball. But when Buck O'Neil was 12 years old, his heroes were white. I didn't say Don't black men playing baseball. These guys were white men and this was a different world. The

00:02:56.480 - 00:03:15.930

year was 1924 and Major League Baseball had come. Two bucks, Hometown of Sarasota, Florida The New York Giants were spring training here. Connie Max Athletics and Babe Ruth's Yankees were playing exhibition games. We would always say, Well, I'm like Babe Ruth. I'm like Hood Pinnock. I'm

00:03:15.930 - 00:03:35.060

like the name of these Great. I'm like Ty Cobb, but we never thought about. We were going to play Major League Baseball. On a hot, dusty days, Buck worked alongside his father and the celery fields of Sarasota. His mother was a cook for a rich white

00:03:35.060 - 00:03:51.540

family. Bucks best friend was also white, and in the afternoons they would play ball or go fishing. But Buck learned that they really didn't belong together. The day a policeman stopped them on the street and demanded to know why a white boy was walking with a

00:03:51.540 - 00:04:14.430

***. I hated segregation. Yeah, I hated what it did to my father. I hate what it did to my mama. I hate what it did. The people that I knew. I hate what it did to my race. One day, Buck was eating lunch behind some celery

00:04:14.430 - 00:04:29.660

boxes. He didn't know his father was on the other side, and I said, Damn, it's got to be something better than this. I said it aloud. And when we got off the truck going home that night, he said, I heard what you said behind those boxes,

00:04:29.670 - 00:04:44.050

I said, Oh, no, I think he's gonna reprimand me for saying Damn, but it was hot, you know, and I I said this This word he said, No, I wasn't talking about that. What I was saying is, Yeah, it's got to be something better than this

00:04:44.240 - 00:05:04.860

say, But you see Sarah, so you got to go for the next to get it. There was something better. Buck was 13 when his father took him to West Palm Beach to see his first Negro League baseball game. This was entertainment imported for the rich black

00:05:04.860 - 00:05:23.850

ball. Players were welcomed here, along with the colored servants who tended the fancy homes and the big hotels. Buck and his father sat in the colored section alongside maids, butlers, bellhops across the way. You could see the grandstand full of white people on the field, black

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ballplayers. They were playing to prove to them that they were as good as any ballplayer that they had ever seen. My chest was about to burst. I'm looking at them, and I can't look at them as much as I'm looking at. The white folk was every

00:05:49.900 - 00:06:18.560

time they would make a play, the white folks were doing like this or standing up clapping. I've never seen white people react this way to a black person. Yeah, go back. I can't explain that feeling and I'll never have it again. That feeling now I want

00:06:18.560 - 00:06:37.840

to be a black ballplayer. Uh huh. Mm Bucks Dream was alive because of this man, Andrew Rube Foster, the father of black baseball. Foster ran away from Calvert, Texas, when he was 15 to join a colored ball club. They barnstorm from town to town, trying to

00:06:37.840 - 00:06:53.850

scare up a game and a meal wherever they could. By the early 19 hundreds route, Foster was famous known among whites and blacks. As one of the best pitchers in America. Foster was hoping for a major league job, but the color line was too strong, so

00:06:53.850 - 00:07:14.180

he started his own team, the Chicago American Giants. Foster was owner, manager and flair. The Giants attracted huge crowds who came to see a new style of play called Tricky Ball. Negro League baseball at that time was fast, quick craft tech. We started stealing home. We

00:07:14.180 - 00:07:33.350

started all that stuff. You would have eight guys playing on that team could steal a base. It was an exciting thing because you know how baseball can get kind of boring. And sometimes Negro baseball was never boring white big league managers began to copy Rube Foster's

00:07:33.350 - 00:07:49.480

inventions like the hit and run bunt, but they still refused to hire a single black player. So Rube Foster took the next logical step. On February 13 1920 he gathered the owners of the eight best colored teams in the Midwest at this Y M. C. A.

00:07:49.480 - 00:08:06.280

In Kansas City. We are the ship, he said. All else is the sea. In a white man's world, we have to join together to survive. The ship he built was the Negro National League. And so in 1938 Buck O'Neil joined one of the greatest teams in

00:08:06.280 - 00:08:26.820

baseball, the Kansas City Monarchs. Now I'm living that dream that I was thinking about. Now I'm playing with maybe the best ball players in the world. With and again, Negro League teams had their own pennant race, their own World Series, even an All Star game that

00:08:26.830 - 00:08:43.910

often drew bigger crowds than the major league All Stars. But Negro League games were sometimes hundreds of miles apart, so along the way they played against small town teams, often white, who loved to challenge the sharp black professionals for a share of the profits. This was

00:08:43.910 - 00:09:06.640

barnstorming in style. The Kansas City Monarchs road in the best buses money could buy. Yeah, yeah, mhm. They followed what was called the chitlin circuit, the same highways as other black entertainers. Buck found himself hobnobbing with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and

00:09:06.640 - 00:09:28.280

Count Basie. Mhm. They they all survived on the back roads of segregated America by telling each other what towns were safe to visit. What colored hotels had clean sheets, what black owned diners served hot food or in an emergency, what white restaurants would feed Negroes out

00:09:28.290 - 00:09:51.440

the back door. It was a sad time one way, but it was a beautiful time. See, all these places I've been naming to you is with black owned and operated. You understand what I'm saying to you? That means you were supporting your own. Yeah, the idea

00:09:51.450 - 00:10:09.020

of supporting your own helped make Negro baseball the third largest black owned business in America. Buck O'Neil made $150 a month playing first base for the Monarchs top pay for a black man, although white major league players made twice as much. But this man made more

00:10:09.020 - 00:10:26.930

money than anyone in baseball, black or white, He was Buck's best friend on the Monarchs, a tall drink of water named Satchel Paige. Satchel Paige was one of the greatest ballplayers that ever lived, and databases was quite a human being to A lot of people didn't

00:10:26.930 - 00:10:44.990

know the satchel that I knew. They knew him as a great picture and more or less like a comedian because he was an entertainer on the mound. Satchel Paige was the biggest star in Negro baseball, traveling around the country with his own club of all stars

00:10:44.990 - 00:11:03.320

when he wasn't playing for the Monarchs, Satchel was also quite a ladies' man. Buck remembers being awakened one night by the sound of satchel banging on hotel room doors, looking for a girl named Nancy. Suddenly, satchels. Beyonce showed up unexpectedly, and her name wasn't Nancy and

00:11:03.320 - 00:11:20.040

I was sat a lot there, Harley Nancy. I got up and I opened my door and stood out there. I said, Yeah, yeah, what you want? He said, Oh, Nancy, I was looking for you and since then on, he called me. Nancy Buck also remembers the

00:11:20.050 - 00:11:36.220

famous showdown between Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, the man who once hit the ball out of Yankee Stadium. It was the 1942 Negro World Series, the Monarchs versus the Homestead Graves. That's when Satchel decided to liven things up by loading the basis so he could pitch

00:11:36.220 - 00:11:54.310

to Josh Gibson. We got 35,000 people in the ballpark. Everybody standing now because they saw just what was happening. All this was building up. Nobody walks. Anybody to pitch the jobs given you walk, Josh, given the picture, somebody else. And when he comes up to the

00:11:54.320 - 00:12:17.130

plate, Josh is up there. And to me, that bet looked like it was 10 ft long, and so I just said, Well, Josh, I'm gonna throw you some fastball. I'm gonna throw you a fastball. Letter, high boots. Strike one. Josh didn't move the bed. He said,

00:12:17.130 - 00:12:37.270

Now, Josh, I'm gonna throw you another fastball. But it's gonna be a little faster than that last fastball I threw. You let a high I'm gonna throw you one belt. High boom strike to the big choice didn't move. He said Now, Josh, I got you two

00:12:37.270 - 00:12:52.710

strikes and no ball in this situation. You know what? We're doing this league. I'm supposed to knock you down. I'm supposed to brush your back off the plate, See? But listen, Josh, I'm not gonna throw in the smoke at your yoke. I'm gonna throw a pH.

00:12:52.710 - 00:13:08.770

Any boom strike three knee high called out on strikes. Josh didn't move the bat standing at the plate, and we're walking off the field. The ball game is over. He walked by me. You know, besides a 64 sides, it looks like he's 70 tall. Now he

00:13:08.770 - 00:13:35.620

said, You know what, Nancy? I say what? Satchel said. Nobody just nobody hits satchels. Fastball, I said, I believe you. Yeah, but no matter how great he was, when Satchel Paige stepped off the mound, he was simply another black man in segregated America. One day, Buck

00:13:35.620 - 00:13:50.620

and Satchel took a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit a place where slaves had once been sold to the highest bidder. We stood there maybe 15 minutes, not saying anything just and I don't want thoughts. And after about 15 minutes, I just said, You know

00:13:50.620 - 00:14:10.400

what, Nancy? I said, What Satchel, he said, seemed just like I've been here before. I send me to Santa and what he was thinking that his maybe his great grandfather, his grandfather, his great grandmother, my great grandmother had been auctioned off right on that same block.

00:14:10.410 - 00:14:32.900

This was a Satchel Paige, and this was the Satchel. Paige was a little different then a lot of people perceived him to be. So the buses rolled in the summers past, and the Negro League was becoming an army. It was Rube Foster, the father of black

00:14:32.910 - 00:14:50.020

baseball, who said, One day, we will be strong enough to cross the color line and we have to be ready. But before that day came, Foster's own strength gave out. He spent the last five years of his life in a mental hospital. He died in 1930

00:14:50.040 - 00:15:26.540

at the age of 51. His final ravings were about winning just one more penance. Wow, yeah, mhm mm 1929. In a quiet neighborhood in Pasadena, California, a 10 year old colored boy got in a fight with the white man who lived across

00:15:26.540 - 00:15:42.560

the street. It started when the man called the boy a dirty little ***. The boy got so mad he began throwing rocks at his white neighbor until the man was forced to retreat inside his house. The boy's name was Jackie Robinson, and in a few more

00:15:42.560 - 00:16:09.140

years, his hot pride and quick temper would be tested on a baseball field full of white men. Mhm! Mhm, yeah, mhm! Mhm. The awakening of the civil rights movement started in World War Two with a very simple question that black soldiers can fight for freedom overseas.

00:16:09.150 - 00:16:30.170

Why can't they have it at home? And one of the biggest symbols of discrimination at home was baseball. On opening Day 1942 baseball was in trouble. The best white players were signing up, marching off. Shipping out. Managers were so desperate to fill their lineups, they hired

00:16:30.170 - 00:16:56.860

a one armed outfielder and a one legged picture. But not a single Negro. Black sportswriters like Sam Lacy began pushing for integration. I called attention to the fact that there were all kinds of elements in Major league baseball thieves, hoodlums Ah, Italians, Jews, Germans, Lithuanians. Ah,

00:16:57.740 - 00:17:17.670

so why not a black? The gates to the big leagues were guarded by this man, the commissioner of baseball. His name was Kenesaw Mountain Landis. It is my belief that baseball is loved by an entire nation because it embodies that priceless spirit of equality that is

00:17:17.680 - 00:17:37.360

the very backbone of America itself. Landis was a former federal judge who had almost absolute power over baseball when the integration movement heated up in 1942. Landis responded by saying, Negroes are not barred from organized baseball and never have been in the 21 years I have

00:17:37.360 - 00:17:54.490

served barefaced lies. Leonard Koppett was a sports writer for The New York Times. Clearly, there was a gentleman's agreement. It was more than Gentleman's agreement. The commissioner of baseball, judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was a bigot, and he didn't want. He didn't want blacks in that white

00:17:54.490 - 00:18:15.250

world. The pretense that was made by land by many of the other owners was the blacks were simply not there because they weren't weren't good enough. Just how good were the Negro League teams in 400 exhibition games against major league players, Black ball clubs? 12 3rd

00:18:15.250 - 00:18:35.220

of the time, Black victories became so embarrassing that Commissioner Landis finally banned major league teams from competing against colored ball clubs, and so the Negro Leagues remained mostly invisible to the white public. One of the most important aspects of American racism has been that ability to

00:18:35.220 - 00:18:56.210

be indifferent to the existence of the black community. Not merely that you like it. You don't like it, your for your against it, but just pay no attention to it. But World War two was making Negroes more visible than anything since the Civil War. The Negro

00:18:56.210 - 00:19:13.220

is taking his place in the skilled arts of labour. Millions of Southern blacks were moving north for wartime jobs, and another million had joined America's segregated military to help fight for democracy. One of them was Jackie Robinson. At first, the Army was happy to see Jackie

00:19:13.220 - 00:19:30.440

Robinson. He had been a sports hero at U. C. L. A. In baseball, basketball track and all American in football. But when the Army asked Jackie to play football at Fort Riley, Kansas, he refused. Jackie wanted to be an officer, and he tried to get into

00:19:30.440 - 00:19:46.620

Officer's candidate school, and they told him, I'm sorry we don't accept blacks here. Jackie went to his sergeant, who happened to be Joe Louis, the heavyweight champion of the world and one of the few Negroes white America would listen to Jackie complained to Joe Louis, who

00:19:46.620 - 00:20:05.260

complained to people in Washington and in order came down ordering them to put black blacks into officer candidate school. As a first lieutenant, Jackie caused more trouble for the Army when he fought to get tables for colored soldiers at the base cafeteria. But the biggest trouble

00:20:05.260 - 00:20:22.050

came on a hot summer day at Fort Hood, Texas, July 6th, 1940 for Jackie boarded a bus and took a seat in the white section. And the bus driver looked back and saw him sitting in the middle of the bus and ordered him to get to

00:20:22.050 - 00:20:36.560

the back of the bus. And Jackie stood on his rights and refused. Now, doing this in places in the South and North Carolina, um, soldiers had actually been shot and killed by bus drivers. This was a tremendous act of courage, given the temper of the times

00:20:37.140 - 00:20:54.930

when military police showed up, they call Jackie a *** Officer Jackie said, I'll take you apart if you call me that again. And Jackie was caught. Marshal fighters caught marshal for insubordination, uh, and was ultimately acquitted. But I think this whole incident demonstrates the type of

00:20:54.930 - 00:21:15.750

person Jackie Robinson was. By the end of 1944 the Army had had enough of Jackie Robinson. He was released with an honorable discharge. His next job was with the Kansas City Monarchs. Now, Jackie was a different breed than any of us because jacket hadn't been raised

00:21:15.750 - 00:21:37.430

up with what we was raised up under. Jackie knew we didn't have to accept what we were accepting. One day, the monarchs stopped at a service station where they could buy gas, but they couldn't use the restroom. The man put the nozzle in the tank going

00:21:37.430 - 00:21:53.170

to put the gas and jacket said, Well, I'm going to the bathroom Man's boy. You can't go to that bathroom. You know better than that, Jack Dorsey. Take the hose out of the town. Now. This guy ain't gonna sell 100 gallons of gas at one time

00:21:53.170 - 00:22:08.130

until we come back again. So you know what he says? Say, Well, go ahead, put the gas and then you you boys going to the bathroom, But you don't stay long. So now Jacket started us the thing because we just took it for granted. You know

00:22:08.130 - 00:22:21.260

what I mean? It's all right. We know we can't go to this bathroom. We don't go there. So from then on, we would go wherever we went. Can we use your bathroom? They said, No, we don't want no gas here. They said, Well, you can use

00:22:21.260 - 00:22:44.190

the bathroom. Mhm. The 19 forties were boom years for Negro League baseball. With wartime jobs, more blacks had cash in their pockets and baseball was their favorite sport. Even the major leagues made money by renting their ballparks to Negro League teams. Baseball's black and white world

00:22:44.190 - 00:23:02.960

would probably have stayed separate for many more years, except that this man decided to break the gentleman's agreement. Branch Rickey was general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A flamboyant personality parts salesman, part preacher, he often said that he could not face his God knowing that he

00:23:02.960 - 00:23:20.210

had been a part of this. Uh, you know this this this conspiracy to keep to keep blacks out. Branch Rickey was also a smart businessman. During the war years, he watched Negro League teams pulling bigger crowds than the Dodgers. Ricky wanted those fans, and he wanted

00:23:20.210 - 00:23:40.400

the talented black players who could help the Dodgers went a pennant. I think he's simultaneously, uh, combined something that's good business with a sincere feeling for a degree of social justice. Branch Rickey had been thinking about integration since his days as a college baseball coach when

00:23:40.400 - 00:23:55.280

he saw the pain of bigotry for the first time, his grandson tells the story. He had one black player on his team, and they went into South Bend, Indiana, to play a game. And as they tried to lodge that night in the hotel, the desk clerk

00:23:55.280 - 00:24:09.860

said, You can all stay here except him, the one black player. And he went up to the desk clerk and he said, Until we resolve that, I'm going to send him up to my room and he can go on up to my room and stay there

00:24:09.860 - 00:24:28.860

and until we settle it. When he got up to his room, he found this player pulling at his hands with tears, running down his face, saying, Mister Rickey, if if I could just I'm no different than anyone else if I could just get this color off.

00:24:31.340 - 00:24:49.300

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball, died in 1944. The following spring, Branch Rickey sent his scouts to the Negro leagues to look for a black ballplayer to break the color line. They came back with Jackie Robinson. He had to have somebody who captured the imagination

00:24:49.940 - 00:25:11.730

of the American fan so that it just knocked them over. Why? What have we been doing? How could there not have been black players in the major leagues? Robinson was capable of that. Yeah. Mhm. Jackie Robinson met with Branch Rickey in August of 1945. As re

00:25:11.730 - 00:25:31.050

enacted in this docudrama, an actor plays Branch Rickey. Jackie Robinson appears as himself. You know why we brought you here? No, sir. Not exactly. You were brought here to play with the Brooklyn organization. We're tackling something big here, Jackie. If we fail, no one will buy

00:25:31.050 - 00:25:43.800

again for 20 years. Before he would hire Robinson, Ricky wanted to test his temper with the kinds of abuse he could expect in white baseball. I think you've got guts enough to play the game no matter what happened. He got right up in Jackie's facing. He

00:25:43.800 - 00:26:00.960

said, Imagine if you will sliding into a base or you're you're the infielder and someone slides into you and spikes you when I get up. I say you, Gertie Black So and so what do you do? Will you fight him? Will you? Yelled back at him.

00:26:01.340 - 00:26:20.220

And Jackie, to his credit, responded to that question with a question. Mr Ricky, do you want a ballplayer who's afraid to fight back? I want a ball player with guts enough not to fight back. And that's when Robinson accepted the commitment that is. He were to

00:26:20.220 - 00:26:45.800

be the one to integrate baseball, that he would not fight back for the first two years that he would turn the other cheek. World War two ended in September of 1945. America had won its fight for democracy. A few weeks later, the Dodgers called a surprise

00:26:45.800 - 00:27:05.960

press conference to announce the signing of Jackie Robinson to their minor league team in Montreal. Baseball's leaders and owners reacted with a stony silence, but Jackie Robinson had this to say. I'm ready to take the chance. Maybe I'm going to do something for my race. Mhm.

00:27:08.740 - 00:27:37.010

Mm, mhm. Mhm, mhm. Once the five people are here to see baseball history made today at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. For this, the opening of the 1946 International League season, a minor league game in New Jersey, forgettable except for one thing, a black man was

00:27:37.010 - 00:27:52.350

about to step up to home plate in so called organized baseball. For the first time in the 20th century, sports writer Sam Lacy was watching from the colored press box. We didn't know what the reaction to Jackie was going to be. We knew that they didn't

00:27:52.350 - 00:28:13.600

want him and and and they certainly didn't want us. We were all really tense, and we were hopeful that Jackie wouldn't embarrass himself. Many white sports writers were predicting that Jackie Robinson would be unable to hit minor league pitching. Mhm the press of the generation in

00:28:13.600 - 00:28:33.770

the early days of the era, Uh, who was prejudiced as as simple as that. And they were particularly prejudiced against the black. Like Jackie Robinson, who was a challenging, intelligent black with sweaty hands and rubbery knees. Jackie took the count to three balls and two strikes,

00:28:34.670 - 00:28:50.560

then get a weak bouncer for an easy out in order to make it. In the old days, you can be just as good as we had to be twice as good as the white player. Joe Black was a Negro League player whose own dreams were riding

00:28:50.560 - 00:29:06.560

on Jackie that day. He was carrying on his shoulders the burden of 21 million black Americans, and that's where his pressure came from. It wasn't the guy pitching the baseball. When Jackie came up in the second inning, he was just hoping to make it to first

00:29:06.560 - 00:29:25.980

base. And he did make it to first just in time to see the ball sail over the left field fence, a three run homer. The feeling relation, of course and relief. There was an inward feeling of relief. Well, now he has proved it belonged, and I

00:29:25.980 - 00:29:49.280

guess our efforts were not in vain. Yeah, mhm. Before the game was finished, Jackie got three more hits, stole second base, twice, stole third base. Once the final score was 14 to 1. Jackie accounted for seven runs. The whole point was that he obviously not only

00:29:49.280 - 00:30:08.300

could play, but he could play better than just about anybody else around. Well, I say he made us all suddenly say, My goodness, we we've been in a bigoted game. That's where I consider Jackie's fundamental importance in history. Beyond sports is, he brought visibility to the

00:30:08.300 - 00:30:31.820

issue of discrimination. He made it impossible to ignore what we could ignore before he was put in that situation. Now people are looking at Jackie Robinson as not only a ballplayer. He's looking at him as a human being. Now, some people still saw Jackie as less

00:30:31.830 - 00:30:47.000

than human. There were death threats and racial insults. Before the next two years. Jackie kept his promise to turn the other cheek. He slide in the basis they were spitting in his face. He get up everything, said Punch. But he didn't punch When they threw the

00:30:47.000 - 00:31:01.130

black Cats on the field, held his shoes up, he learned to swallow. And there's one of the things that helped him swallow was a guy named PBS, a man from Louisville, Kentucky, in Philadelphia. They were getting on Jackie so bad, he said. I looked at him

00:31:01.130 - 00:31:14.860

staying at second base, and I saw the fire in his eye and he said I went and put my arm around and says, Forget those guys, Jackie, because I knew some fellas that if they had thrown that black cat out on the diamond, would have picked

00:31:14.860 - 00:31:32.930

up that cat and walked in that stand and jam that cat right down to sucker throat. But Jackie knew that what was riding on his shoulder was 75 years of segregation in baseball. If he had slid hard into a white ball player, if he had kicked

00:31:32.930 - 00:31:49.700

dirt on an umpire, he could have set the whole thing back 50 more years. Near the end of his first season, Jackie Robinson was the best hitter, best runner and best infielder in the minor leagues. He was also on the verge of a nervous breakdown. His

00:31:49.700 - 00:32:16.650

doctor ordered arrest. Jackie and his new bride, Rachel, talked about quitting. But after only two days off, Jackie came back to lead his team to the minor league championship. Mhm. While Jackie Robinson was playing baseball with white men, a future baseball legend was still playing behind

00:32:16.650 - 00:32:32.720

the color line in Mobile, Alabama, 12 year old Henry Aaron was so poor he didn't have a bat or a ball. So what I did do was used soda tops. If I couldn't find anybody to play with, I would pitching myself just throwing up in there

00:32:32.720 - 00:32:47.030

and hit him with a broomstick, you know, and believe it or not, I couldn't wear a broom. Stick out. Hank Aaron was a skinny kid, gentle and shy. He didn't know any white people and he had never heard of Jackie Robinson. But Satchel Paige came from

00:32:47.030 - 00:33:06.260

the same neighborhood, so Hank Aaron began to dream of the Negro Leaks. And so, a few years later, in the spring of 1952 Hank Aaron left home for baseball. He was barely 18 years old. I was very young, and that was the very first time I

00:33:06.260 - 00:33:22.540

had been there for automobile. That Well, I haven't been. I haven't been that for, you know, And I was scared to death. The Supreme Court had recently ordered the integration of trains. Still, Aaron looked around for a white person to tell him where to sit. Yeah,

00:33:23.440 - 00:33:40.360

yeah, yeah. When I as that train, I will never forget this with my mother and my sister, my oldest sister. And I got on that train, and I kind of looked back and saw them standing there. You know, I kind of thought, Am I making a

00:33:40.360 - 00:33:54.870

mistake? Am I doing something that I'm going to regret the rest of my life? But I said, I looked and I started thinking, I said, This is something that I got to do So I looked and I said, You know, further, that train God is you

00:33:54.870 - 00:34:11.790

know, trains just can live down the railroad track and my mother and my sister got small and small, and pretty soon they were completely out of sight. And I only had $2 and a sandwich on me and one little pair of regular pants and the other

00:34:11.790 - 00:34:25.860

pair pants I had on. So I clutched the bag real tight because I didn't know what was happening. You know, I stayed up all night that night. Go, go! When Hank Aaron got to the Negro Leagues, they were slowly dying, wounded by the success of Jackie

00:34:25.860 - 00:34:49.680

Robinson, 14. Robinson is back to out. No one on me. Hold on, Hold on. Robinson cracked the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947. Hometown fans called him the Pride of Brooklyn as he helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant. Jackie was named rookie

00:34:49.680 - 00:35:08.470

of the year Roy Campanella on the left, the National League's most valuable player in 1951 seen here with Larry Doby, New command Robinson. Over the next decade, 58 Negro League stars would follow Jackie Robinson into the big leagues, men like Monte Irvin, Hank Thompson, Ernie Banks,

00:35:08.940 - 00:35:28.530

Willie Mays, Joe Black and Satchel Paige. But there was a problem when the best players left the Negro Leagues. Most of the fans left to. There's a tendency to romanticize the Negro Leagues to create them as these wonderful things that we've lost. But back in the

00:35:28.530 - 00:35:41.710

19 forties, there was no question in the black community that what they wanted was integration. What they really wanted to see was their players get a chance to compete against the best to prove themselves. In a sense, they felt they were proving not only themselves. They

00:35:41.710 - 00:35:58.360

were proving the race. Some Negro League teams went out of business. Others used jokes and tricks to attract an audience. In 1952 Hank Aaron joined a team called the Indianapolis Clowns. He was still skinny, but he had strong wrists and a quick I from hitting all

00:35:58.360 - 00:36:14.210

those bottle caps. That spring, the clowns took on the still proud Kansas City Monarchs. Buck O'Neil was now their manager when he saw Aaron batting in the home run position. He thought it was a joke. The first time Aaron came up first pitch, he threw him

00:36:14.210 - 00:36:28.650

a pitch outside. He hit it up against the right for your friends. So the next time this is spring training, I got another guy. Picture got Jean Collins was the left hand picture. I said, Jean put a lot on this ball. I want to see this

00:36:28.650 - 00:36:46.570

kid swing the bat. He broke a curveball off on him, a good, hard curveball, and he hit that ball up against the left field fence. I said, This kid can swing about, you know, just sitting there just like this. And this bat was quick. I said,

00:36:46.570 - 00:37:01.450

Okay, I said, Well, I got one more shot at him. The next time he came up, I had Hilton Smith and I said, Hilton, I want you to work on this guy threw him a fastball up here, move them off. Hilton had a good curveball. He's

00:37:01.450 - 00:37:17.650

gonna throw them a curveball and the next pitch he broke off a good curveball. He hit it straight over the center for your offense, but Hank Aaron was learning more than how to hit a curve ball. One day after a game in Washington, D. C. Aaron

00:37:17.650 - 00:37:33.800

went to a white owned restaurant for lunch. His teammate, Woody Smallwood was with him. We were hungry when we left Griffin Stadium, and that's the kip, capital of the United States. And we went across the street to eat, and I guess the didn't want to service.

00:37:33.800 - 00:37:45.500

But they did service. They did let us eat. And after we ate, they broke the dishes. They cleared addition. They broke them up. They broke the dishes up. When we got ready to leave, they didn't want to stay, and they let us know by breaking the

00:37:45.500 - 00:37:58.800

dishes. And we didn't care because we ate. If this had happened in Birmingham, we would have known better. But this happened in Washington, D. C. I didn't care about them breaking the did. I wish they broke every dish in the whole restaurant would have made me

00:37:58.800 - 00:38:11.640

no difference. But I ate, didn't I? I ate and I left and I wasn't mad. What was I? I was full. I look back on that whole incident, I said. Now you know it's a funny thing, but I didn't see one of those dollar bills being

00:38:11.640 - 00:38:32.160

torn up, but they crack the plates, you know. So it's just tell you one thing. We want your money, but we don't want you. Yeah, In the spring of 1950 for the United States Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools. It was the beginning of a

00:38:32.160 - 00:38:49.440

new optimism and a more active struggle for black civil rights. That same spring, Hank Aaron joined the Milwaukee Braves and began learning about civil rights from other black ballplayers. He would often sit in hotel rooms after a game, listening to Jackie Robinson or Joe Black talk

00:38:49.440 - 00:39:04.850

about how to stand up for themselves, what to do when white players threw the ball at their heads or called them names. The racial tension came from benchwarmers guys who are afraid of losing their job because they now had to compete with a guy who had

00:39:04.850 - 00:39:22.380

a dark skin and Jackie, through his example, made us realize that we, too, can turn the other cheek. Jackie Robinson was still pushing the color line. He had already opened up most of the northern hotels, two black players, but in 1954 there was one left the

00:39:22.380 - 00:39:41.140

Chase Hotel in ST Louis. Jackie finally talked the manager into accepting black players, but there was a catch the manager causes in the offices. Hey, welcome here, but were wonderful room service. We appreciate if you don't sit around in the lobby. Uh, Miss Pearl Bailey is

00:39:41.140 - 00:39:54.400

entertainment up on the roof? You probably know, but appreciate you don't go up there. Don't sit around and swimming pulling up or you're just a prisoner. Sit in the rooms at stake in this great White hotel and get room service. Joe Black turned down the offer,

00:39:54.400 - 00:40:10.210

but Jackie decided to stay once he had his foot in the door. He had his eye on the dining room. One day, Jackie said, No, I'm not gonna eat in my room tonight. I'm gonna eat in the dining room. So when Jackie went down in the

00:40:10.210 - 00:40:25.870

dining room well, in the manager of the hotel, you know he's scared to death because his clientele is all white and he's afraid that they would walk out the dining room. But instead of walking out, Jackie couldn't eat his meal. For people wanting autographs and saying,

00:40:25.880 - 00:40:48.710

it's about time. It's about time. When Jackie Robinson retired in 1957. There were many color barriers left to break. Three of the 16 major league teams were still segregated. Baseball had no black coaches, no black managers, no black umpires. 1960. The Negro League was dead. Most

00:40:48.710 - 00:41:08.170

of it's players and managers simply disappeared from baseball, but not Buck O'Neil. In 1962 the Chicago Cubs hired him as the first black coach in the major leagues here. I'm the first coach in Major League baseball and Major league Baseball damn near 100 years old, and

00:41:08.170 - 00:41:31.650

I'm the first black coach. And I knew a men that should have had that job 50 years ago. So I wasn't on elated about being the first black coach. It was kind of bitter in a way because it's just happening now, and it would have been

00:41:31.650 - 00:41:56.160

alright if it's just happening now. If I was the first quality guy that was qualified for the job. But so many men before me should have been the first black course. Mhm. In a special ceremony at the 1972 World Series, Jackie Robinson gave a speech and

00:41:56.160 - 00:42:11.800

threw out the first ball. I'm extremely proud and pleased to be here this afternoon, but must admit I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud. Well, I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a black face managing in baseball, Thank

00:42:11.800 - 00:42:29.570

you very much. He was 53 years old and going blind with diabetes. After the game, Jackie went to the locker room to see some of the young black players, but everyone was pretty busy. So Jackie finally picked up his cane and walked out. He died two

00:42:29.570 - 00:42:43.160

weeks later. He died very young, you know? I mean, really, when most people should have been at the foot of the life, he died very young and people said, Well, he died a natural death. He did die natural death. But boy, I'll tell you, with all

00:42:43.160 - 00:42:56.860

the pressure that you had, some of us who were there believe that the the abuse that he took cut 10 years off Jackie Robinson's life, and he says, Jackie Robinson said, You can throw baseballs at my head. You can spit at me. But don't change my

00:42:56.860 - 00:43:45.610

game plan and in my game plan is to prove that black and white can play together and that black and white can walk together. Mhm. Mhm, yeah! Mhm, Yeah. Thank you. Mhm, Mhm! Mhm! It was awesome. Cooperstown, New York,

00:43:45.620 - 00:44:03.860

where legend says baseball was born home now to baseball's church, the Hall of Fame. Today I'm going to be talking to you about the existence and the eventual demise of the Negro League teams. The Negro Leagues have their own corner here, and the tour guides tell

00:44:03.860 - 00:44:21.900

them olden days when great men were denied an equal chance when race was more important than skill. Hank Aaron was the last graduate of the Negro Leagues to retire from the game of baseball, but before he did, he put one final exclamation point on the whole

00:44:21.910 - 00:44:41.550

era. For 20 years, Hank Aaron had been quietly swinging the bat, racking up hits and home runs. When Jackie Robinson died in 1972 Aaron made a decision as a tribute to Jackie and the history of his people. He would try to break the holiest record in

00:44:41.550 - 00:45:02.740

baseball, the home run record set by none other than Babe Ruth, the greatest white hero in baseball history. The number to beat was 714 Aaron was 41 runs short. He was also 39 years old and running out of time, 1973. He came out swinging with seven

00:45:02.740 - 00:45:16.400

home runs the first week of the season. And then came the letters. Dear ***, Everybody loved Babe Ruth. You will be the most hated man in the country if you break his home run record here. Henry. I hope you don't break the baby's record. How do

00:45:16.400 - 00:45:31.910

I tell my kids that a *** did it? Dear Henry Aaron. Retire or die. You'll be in Philadelphia July 9th to 11th. You'll dine one of those games. I'll sneak a rifle into the bleachers. The FBI began screening Erin's male and guarding his family after uncovering

00:45:31.910 - 00:45:51.280

a plot to kidnap his daughter. Erin fought the hate with the only weapon he had. It got very ugly. It taught me that most people look at you if you black, no matter what you are, no matter what you accomplish that you you, you still in

00:45:51.280 - 00:46:06.990

there outside a second class citizen. And still he receives occasional hate mail from fans living at the thought of when Erin's hate mail made national news. He began getting new letters. Dear Mr Aaron, I'm 12 years old and I've read many articles about prejudice against you.

00:46:07.000 - 00:46:19.770

I really think it's bad. Dear Hank. On the day you hit your 7/100 home run, my sister in Dayton, Ohio, had a baby boy. We have chosen the name Aaron in your honor. Dear Mr Aaron. For years, sports fans have been waiting for the right man

00:46:19.770 - 00:46:45.170

to break that record. You are the Messiah that has finally arrived. By the end of 1973 Hank Aaron had received nearly one million letters, more than anybody in the country, most of its supportive. He was also closing in on the record 700 705 711 at the

00:46:45.180 - 00:46:58.590

end of the season. Hank Aaron had 713 home runs, one shy of the record. The closer I got, the more I wanted to break it, and the closer I got, I knew that I was going to break it. If I stay healthy, you know that was

00:46:58.590 - 00:47:19.390

an absolutely nothing could keep me from doing it. Opening day 1974 there's a drive in the field with his first swing of the bat. Hank Aaron tied the record. And then, on a cool April evening in Atlanta, swinging, There's a drive in the left center, failed.

00:47:19.430 - 00:47:41.400

That ball is going to be out of here. It's gone. It's 7 15 little home run champion of all time. Henry Aaron hit it. I just thank the good Lord that it was over with, because I have been through so much. So when I hit it,

00:47:41.400 - 00:48:01.880

I thought I just felt like somebody had lifted a whole building off my shoulder and I felt relieved. That night. Hank Aaron went home and cried. When the cheers were gone. It was the pain and the poison he would remember. There should have been the happiest

00:48:01.880 - 00:48:23.300

moment of my life, but it was a sad moment. That's why I don't We don't talk about it too much because it's just not a happy thing to talk about. So where is the color line today? Hank Aaron is an executive for the Atlanta Braves. The

00:48:23.310 - 00:48:44.070

former National League president is African American. The highest paid player in baseball is African American. The manager of the world champions is African American, and yet the color line has not disappeared. No, I don't believe it's prejudice. In 1987 on the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's

00:48:44.080 - 00:49:04.740

entry into the big leagues, his old friend and teammate Al Campanis talked about why more blacks weren't working in management. I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities two, the, let's, say, a field manager or perhaps a a general manager. Campaneris, who

00:49:04.740 - 00:49:22.160

was general manager of the Dodgers, was fired for his remarks. More recently, Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, returned to baseball after a one year suspension for making racist comments. She once reportedly told a group of baseball owners. I'd rather have a trained monkey working

00:49:22.160 - 00:49:40.310

for me than a ***. This 1993 study by Northeastern University looked at the progress of integration and professional sports, not only on the playing field but in front office jobs as well. The study found that baseball shows a continued lack of progress in hiring blacks and

00:49:40.310 - 00:49:58.410

other minorities in overall grades. Basketball got an A football A B and baseball got a C. As for blacks and top management positions, baseball flunked. There's still a color line exists that has to exist because it exist in America. And what kills me is why do

00:49:58.410 - 00:50:15.070

people think it doesn't exist in baseball, when baseball is nothing more than part of America? This country is. It's a wonderful country and there's been great progress has been made in my lifetime. But the the old bubble racism is still there. I think we've taught white

00:50:15.070 - 00:50:33.710

America. One thing is that, given the opportunity, regardless to whether it's baseball or what in this case, it happened to be baseball, that we can do anything that has given the same opportunities. Our white brothers. Yeah. Buck O'Neil is 81 years old and working as a

00:50:33.710 - 00:50:50.390

scout for the Kansas City Royals. He still keeps in touch with the players he's coached. I got it, I got it out. And he's giving the next generation some help to hear loud and clear today, ladies and gentlemen, we're proud to have with a 16 former

00:50:50.390 - 00:51:14.310

Negro League of Legends to honor. There are about 150 Negro League players still living, many of them poor and forgotten. But occasionally Major League Baseball pays tribute to the survivors. Most of these men never got a chance to play Major league Baseball. But they share the

00:51:14.310 - 00:51:42.720

success of Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and so many others. Yeah, all progress that's ever been made anywhere. Mhm. It was the struggle, and a lot of people that struggled never really reach their goal. But they were the cause of someone else reaching their goal. Oh, the

00:51:42.720 - 00:52:02.110

struggle for opportunity will go forward for African Americans. But for these men on this sunny afternoon, it can't hurt to look back with a little bit of pride And say, This is how we played the game when they integrated baseball. Eight out of the 1st 10

00:52:02.110 - 00:52:27.060

years of integration. The Rookie of the year with Black. The most valuable player in the league with black. Does that tell you anything? Where did you think when you think they came from, you didn't make them? We made if we made. And so because of these

00:52:27.060 - 00:53:46.380

proud men, young black boys can still dream of the thrill of the crowd and the crack of the bat. Yeah. Mhm. Uh huh. Wow. Yeah, Yeah. Mm. Uh huh. Yeah. Oh, hi. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah.

00:53:47.050 - 00:54:43.810

You can't. Okay. Yeah. We hope you enjoyed this Emmy Award winning documentary produced by Crime back in 1994. Here's a brief update on some of the people you've seen. Mhm stay there. Negro League legend Buck O'Neil is now

00:54:43.810 - 00:55:01.790

90 years old and still charting pitches for the Kansas City Royals. Barry Bonds is the new single season home run king Hank Aaron is still vice president of the Atlanta Braves and honored on the latest Wheaties box in Northeastern University's latest race report card. Baseball still

00:55:01.790 - 00:55:11.250

gets an F for its lack of blacks in top management, but the overall grade for integration has gone from a C to A B. I'm pale more. Thanks for watching.