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The Forest Scout

The Student News Site of Lake Forest High School

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The Forest Scout

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This Week in Sports History: MLB Commissioner Allows Any MLB Club to Sign African-American Athletes

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If you had the opportunity to travel back in time to 1943 to catch a standard major league baseball game you would notice two blatantly obvious things. First off, your ticket would be way less than a dollar and secondly, when you’d step inside the gates of whatever field you were visiting you would realize that there was absolutely no diversity what so ever. You would see a bunch of white men and women watching a white game of baseball. In those years, people of color weren’t allowed to play professional baseball and were instructed to play in what they called the “Negro Leagues”. Even if an African American was good enough to play in the MLB they weren’t allowed to. That was until a cold winter day in 1943 when MLB commissioner Kenesaw Landis made one of the most important announcements in baseball history.

On December 4th of 1943, baseball’s commissioner at the time, Kenesaw Landis, received a telegram from Francis Chalmers on behalf of the Interracial Committee of the New York Council of Church Women. The telegram read “The Interracial Committee of the New York Council of Church Women urges professional baseball to be opened to Negroes. They have shown themselves to be star performers in track and boxing. Why should professional baseball not operate on a democratic basis?” After reviewing the telegram for quite some time, Commissioner Landis made his decision. His simple answer was “okay.”’ From that point on, any professional baseball club could sign an African-American baseball player. This wasn’t just big for baseball, but big for the African American civil rights movement as they took one more giant leap towards achieving equality.

As many already know, the first African-American baseball player was Jackie Robinson, but he didn’t make his debut until April 15th of 1947, four years after commissioner Landis allowed teams to sign African-American players. Once Jackie Robinson stepped up to the plate for the first time as a Dodger, other teams began to sign players from the Negro leagues. The next African Americans to join the major leagues was Larry Doby, Hank Thompson, Monte Irvin and more as the presence of black players in the major leagues continued to grow. Even though these African American players were recognized as professional baseball players, life was still not easy for them. Segregation was still applied to players that came from the Negro Leagues as they would be constantly booed and harassed by opposing teams and their fans. African-Americans would rarely receive the same accommodations that white players had, but, of course, they just kept playing and transforming baseball one step at a time.

Players like Jackie Robinson have forever transformed the baseball world. If you go to any professional MLB stadium today you will notice that they all have the retired number 42 outlined in Dodger blue. Baseball has come a very long way ever since 1943 when the commissioner allowed MLB clubs to sign players of African-American descent.  Because of baseball pioneers like Robinson, African-Americans have been able to become successful baseball players like Chicago White Sox legend Frank Thomas, Cub legend Ernie Banks and former Minnesota Twin Kirby Puckett. Kids of all races, including myself, have won the number 42 on the diamond in salute of Jackie Robinson and Commissioner Kenesaw Landis’ decision. On December 4th of 1943, baseball changed forever.

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About the Contributor
Joe Thomas, Author
Joe Thomas is a staff writer for The Forest Scout who has a burning passion for sports. He covers high school football, hockey and baseball along with the MLB and college basketball. He constantly dreams of being a writer for a professional sports organization when he is older. You can find the majority of his work in the In Between The Lines section.
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