The Integration of Baseball & its Effect on Social Movements
The integration of baseball during 1947-1959 was a time period where barriers were broken resulting in positive social changes that would alleviate class conflicts. Social changes through integration of baseball helped the Civil Rights movements although its major impacts weren’t made until the late 1960s. Baseball players were praised within the sport of baseball; however, their social status still remained the same. What was the impact of the integration of baseball on the Civil Rights movement and the social status of African Americans? These players did great things to help change the game of baseball, but were not respected by majority of their peers. The challenges that did players had to face were ridiculous.
Recognized as superstars on the field, baseball players like Jackie Robinson were looked down upon by society because of their skin color. Therefore, the effects of baseball integration on society was crucial for the Civils Rights movement, but its impact was limited at best for individual baseball players and for the collective African American society since their social status as a whole remained the same. This would lead to residual class conflicts. Even the process of baseball integration was not smooth as some teams embraced integration for various reasons such as competitive advantage or box office potential, but others such as the American League’s old guard faced public pressure to limit the integration of baseball because of the prejudices of the community (Goldman 2).
In American sociology, scholars have started to investigate and ask questions on “how common people have experienced the transformations leading to the modern world and more importantly, how they have collectively contributed to them” (Roy 486). Although famous baseball players like Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Ernie Banks were recognized and praised on the field for their athletic abilities playing equally well if not better alongside their Caucasian counterparts, they were also recognized as blacks, which was associated with lower social status. The impact of African American athletes on the collective common people during the time period of baseball integration was less than substantial. More importantly, black athletes laid the foundation for the Civil Rights movement and paved the path for future equality in class and social status regardless of color. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described Robinson as a “pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides” (Murray 2). Jackie Robinson’s entry into baseball forced the nation to come face to face with racial and social injustice. Playing professional baseball allowed Jackie Robinson to face racial and social injustice on a platform viewed by millions of people through his non-violent reaction to hatred, boos, racial taunts, and threats (Murray 2).
The struggle for freedom belongs to no one generation, but continues for all time. As we have seen, Jackie Robinson caused institutionalized racism in baseball to bend, but it was many years before it would break. For years there was an unwritten rule that a team could not field a majority black lineup, and then that it could not field an all-black lineup (the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first team to do this in 1971). Thirty years after Robinson broke the color line, Dodgers executive Al Campanis declared on national television that blacks "may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager." There has been great progress since, and baseball can point with pride to minority managers and general managers holding World Series trophies in recent years. Still, Jackie Robinson Day is a living holiday, not a remembrance of some long-ago event, but a notification that these ghosts rest uneasily, and the work they began will never be finished. (Goldman) Any discussion of the Civil Rights Movement and the integration of American society cannot begin without noting the contribution of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in Major League Baseball in 1947. Even though there were a myriad of court cases argued by people like Thurgood Marshall that ultimately laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, it was Robinson’s entry into the national pastime that put the issue of equal rights for all Americans at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described Robinson as, “a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.” It was Robinson’s non-violent reaction to the hatred, boos, racist taunts and threatening letters that predated the sit-ins, freedom rides and bus boycotts that Dr. King led nearly 10 years after baseball’s color line was broken. The visceral reaction to Robinson’s entry into baseball made the nation come face-to-face with racial injustice in what is supposed to be a country where all men are created equal. “Jackie did it on a platform that was viewed by millions of people, he had to do it with a certain decorum, he had do it with a certain toughness, he had to endure a lot of hatred and perform at a high level,” said Jimmie Lee Solomon, Executive Vice President, Baseball Development, for Major League Baseball. “Dr. King did the same thing. What Dr. King went through in his 39 years is mind-boggling.” (Chris Murray) There is a possibility that the civil rights movement would not have had as big of an impact if Jackie Robinson was not integrated into baseball, because he opened the doors for Blacks throughout America. The integration of baseball had a major on America as a society. Jackie Robinson is the man who mad that change in 1947. When thinking about the Civil Rights Movement, Jackie Robinson is a key figure, because he integration into such a major sport showed America that we are all equal.