Seventy-five years after he shattered the historical past of racial segregation in baseball, Jackie Robinson is rightly being celebrated for his tenacity and activism. However what about these black superstars who quickly adopted in his nice shadow?
The Historical past Channel’s Illuminating Documentary after jackie (government produced by LeBron James) focuses on three gamers who spent their glory years within the late 1950s and ’60s with the St. Louis Cardinals: Invoice White (prime left), Curt Flood (prime middle) and pitching ace Bob Gibson (prime proper): Serving to lead the group to the World Sequence and win the title.
As they found whereas in search of diamond fame throughout America’s civil rights motion, integration didn’t essentially imply equal therapy.
Every battled prejudice on and off the sector of play: segregated housing throughout spring coaching in Florida, a racist supervisor (later fired) who felt Gibson and Flood weren’t good sufficient to be within the beginning lineup.
“It was laborious for me to appreciate that I used to be working for somebody who did not like me as a result of I used to be black,” Gibson recollects in certainly one of his final interviews earlier than he handed away in October 2020.
Flood made maybe the most important contribution to altering the sport when he sued MLB over the reserve clause that denies gamers management of their careers.
He misplaced on the Supreme Courtroom: “The individuals who come first are in all probability those who get punished probably the most,” he later mirrored, however the case impressed the push totally free company and the passage of the Curt Flood antitrust act of 1998. White additionally left his mark after retiring from the game as a pioneering black sportscaster and later as president of the Nationwide League.
These profiles of braveness deserve their place in American and sports activities historical past.
after jackieDocumentary Premiere, Saturday June 18, eight/7c, Historical past Channel
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