Programs - Social Justice

From the game's earliest years, a baseball player's skin color and heritage have often been vital issues. without question, the national pastime is a remarkable mirror of American social and cultural changes, symbolized by Jackie Robinson's desegregation of the sport in 1947, a first step in the nation's postwar civil rights movement. Through baseball, students can appreciate many of the struggles for social justice in America.

Baseball mirrors our nation's soul. It's our national pastime, the game that represents the best that America has to offer - democracy, fair play and equal opportunity. As filmmaker Ken Burns observed, "The story of baseball is also the story of race in America."

From the game's earliest decades, baseball has reflected the ethnic mix of the United States (as long as players had light skin.) Baseball has also reflected the tides of immigration in the nation as a whole; in the late 1880s, the game was so dominated by Irish players that many stereotyped the Irish as born baseball players.

By the early 20th century, more nationalities were represented, reflecting the country's demographics as a whole. But this pre-World War II era of baseball history did not reveal ethnic harmony. If you weren't part of the majority, your heritage was an important issue.

In the 1930s, for example, Joe DiMaggio, one of a few prominent players of Italian descent, and Hank Greenberg, the first great Jewish star, were subjected to ethnic slurs, on and off the field. But between the 1880s and 1946, African-Americans did not even have the opportunity to play major-league baseball.

The color barrier - an unofficial ban by the game's establishment - meant that talented black players could only play in the Negro Leagues. That restriction ended in 1947 when Jackie Robinson was chosen to be the first black ballplayer in 60 years to play in the majors, as he became a heroic symbol for an entire race and touchstone for debates about racial equality in every sector of American life. Robinson's and Larry Doby's (the second African-American to play in the majors) breaking of the color barrier also prompted an influx of Latin stars in the 1950s, from the Dominican Republic (Juan Marichal), Cuba (Minnie Minoso) and Puerto Rico (Roberto Clemente), etc.

These players faced injustice as well. They were often stigmatized and considered unintelligent because of the language barrier. The brilliant Clemente was a rare voice, unafraid to speak out against the racism he experienced. Over 30 years since his death, he remains a role model for Latin Players, who comprise over 25% of today's major-league rosters.

Labor disputes date to the game's infancy. Baseball has always been a business, and as a business it is driven largely by money. Curt Flood sacrificed his career to challenge the reserve clause in 1969, which helped usher in free agency and escalating salaries. Once governed by family-run franchises, baseball is now a multi-billion dollar business, run by huge corporations.

While women have been associated with baseball since the 19th century, they have seldom found legitimacy or upward mobility in the national pastime. Only a series of court battles in the 1970s have given young girls an opportunity to play on Little League teams. But the national pastime remains, for the most part, a male pastime.

Anti-Semitism: Prejudice against Jews. Hank Greenberg, baseball's first great Jewish player, received openly anti-Semitic taunts from the stands and from the opposition in the 1930s. Years later, star pitcher Sandy Koufax also experienced anti-Semitism, although in more latent forms.

All-American Girl Baseball League: Professional Women's Baseball League (1943-54) created during World War II with wartime manpower shortages threatening major-league baseball. Some 556 women-many of them top-notch athletes-played in the Midwest-based league, which inspired the popular movie A League of Their Own. Once World War II ended, and with advent of TV, social pressures led the women to return to traditional roles, and the league disbanded.

Barnstorming: When baseball teams- notably Negro League teams-would hop from town to town. Many Negro League teams had no home ballparks, so they traveled in dilapidated buses, took their meals on the run and played as many as four games in a day and night in farm towns and in major-league stadiums. This word is taken from the political and theatrical term that originally meant to appear briefly in small country towns where barns served as gathering places.

Color line (or barrier): The unwritten rule that prohibited black players from playing in the major leagues. It was broken on April 15, 1947 when Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jim Crow: Laws segregating blacks from the same transportation and other accommodations as whites. The term was derived from a minstrel show stereotyping blacks as hapless and ignorant and came into usage during Reconstruction, a period in which drastic social and political reforms were imposed on the defeated Confederacy.

Negro Leagues: Term for organized baseball played by blacks and dark-skinned Latinos beginning in the 1880s, when the major leagues established racial segregation. Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier in 1947 hastened the demise of the Negro Leagues, as major-league teams raided the black teams of their best players. The Negro Leagues produced exciting baseball with some of the greatest players in the country - e.g. Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. During World War II, the Negro Leagues grew into a $2 million dollar a year business, probably the single biggest black-dominated enterprise.

Plessy v. Ferguson: The 1896 Supreme Court decision that sanctioned separate but equal accommodations.

Reserve clause: A century-old provision in a ballplayer's contract that bound a player to a single team, under which the team can elect to keep, trade or sell his contract. Owners insisted it was needed to prevent bidding wars, and the reserve clause was twice upheld by the Supreme Court (1922 and 1971). However, the reserve clause was finally overturned by court decisions in the mid-1970s, ushering in the free-agent era in baseball.

Shadow Ball: A crowd-pleasing pantomime stunt in which a baseball team plays without the benefit of a ball, perfected by Negro League stars such as Satchel Paige. The term is also a metaphor for the Negro Leagues, which shadowed the segregated major leagues.

Students explore other examples of social injustice in baseball and their relationship to events outside of baseball.

Example: What were the effects of the influx of Cuban players to the U.S. after the Cuban revolution?

Why did Castro associate himself with the sport for patriotic public relations?

Example: How did Americans reconcile the passion of the Japanese for baseball during World War II? With the Japanese losing its top players to American baseball, what is the attitude towards our game in Japan?

Students explore the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues, and the Negro press (which crusaded for integration.) They can explore why the demise of the Negro Leagues and decline of segregation did not end discrimination, and what racial issues and social injustices continue to haunt baseball.

Students take contemporary examples of racism and role-play various parts. Using John Rocker's racial slurs as an example, they might play the roles of teammates, owners, the commissioner, and president of the players union to decide on appropriate sanctions. They can draw their own conclusions and compare them with the media reporting at the time. Students read a biography of a person who showed great moral courage, or was first in his/her field. Compare their story, decisions, and obstacles to those of Jackie Robinson.

Why did major-league baseball ignore pressure from the media and others to integrate the game?
What circumstances helped make Hank Greenberg a hero to a generation of Jews?
Why is baseball more than a game to many Latin Americans?
Why was lady-like behavior and femininity mandated for the women players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League?
What compelled Negro League players to continue despite hardships and prejudice?
What factors kept 19th century college women, who played baseball for exercise, from continuing to play?

Of all the great Negro League stars, why was Jackie Robinson chosen to break the color barrier?
Why does Latin America, with its makeshift fields and scarce resources, develop so many major-league players?
What is Roberto Clemente's greatest legacy? Why is he revered by current Latino stars too young to have seen him play?
What is Sammy Sosa's significance to baseball besides his home run prowess?
Why did Commissioner Kenesaw Landis void the contract of star woman pitcher Jackie Mitchell in 1931?
What is the significance of baseball's reserve clause, and why is Curt Flood largely ignored or unappreciated as the man who shook the game to its roots?

The story of baseball, in many ways, mirrors our nation's history. A major connection is how the country's changing demographics are reflected in the ethnic and racial makeup of major-league teams. The struggles of immigrants and minority groups eventually gaining opportunity and acceptance are central to changes that have taken place in society and on the playing field.

Students and teachers will learn about significant chapters in baseball's history, from its pre-Civil War origins to the present, tracing historical links between integration and assimilation in the U.S., and the increasing number of players from diverse backgrounds.

The program will address New Jersey Department of Education Core Curriculum Content Standards in acquiring historical understanding of societal ideas and trends throughout the history of the U.S.

Core Standards: Social Studies

Standard 6.2: All Students Will Learn Democratic Citizenship Through the Humanities By Studying Literature, Art, THistory and Philosophy, and Related Fields.
Standard 6.4: All Students Will Acquire Historical Understanding of Societal Ideas and Forces Throughout the History of New Jersey, the United States, and the World.
Standard 6.5: All Students Will Acquire Historical Understanding of Varying Cultures Throughout the History of New Jersey, the United States, and the World.

Burns, Ken and Ward, Geoffrey C. Baseball: An Illustrated History (Baseball Film Projects) 1994.

Greenberg, Hank. The Story of My Life (Triumph Books), 1989.

Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made (Ecco Press), 1995 (originally published Putnam 1972).

Regaldo, Samuel O. Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger (University of Illinois Press), 1998.

Tygiel, Jules. Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy (Oxford), 1983.

Levine, Peter. Ellis Island to Ebbets Field: Sport and the American Jewish Experience (New York), 1992.

Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball Was White (McGraw-Hill), 1984.

Rogosin, Donn. Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues (Atheneum), 1983.

www.negroleaguebaseball.com

www.baseballhalloffame.org

www.baseball-almanac.com

www.aagpbl.org

www.latinobaseball.com

www.robertoclemente21.org

www.sabr.org