Product Description

The author of this book argues that the presence of African-American players in the minor baseball leagues of the South represented more than a quest for individual athletic achievement. Simply by being alongside their white team-mates, black players helped to end segregation in the South.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1245760 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 275 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Even after Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, segregation ruled the minor league circuits of the deep South, the backbone of organized baseball's player development system. Interracial competition was still banned, and black fans were barred from the grandstands and public facilities. Circuits such as the South Atlantic League, the Carolina League, the Texas League and many others would not be fully integrated until 1964, after a combination of talented black players, economics (paying black fans thronged to root for their own) and local black boycotts forced even notoriously resistant leagues such as the Southern Association to integrate. Adelson's outstanding survey of the period examines the groundbreaking role of professional baseball, which paved the way for social mixing of blacks and whites and anticipated the victories of the NAACP and the civil rights movement that would soon follow (there's also an excellent account of legislative and judicial decisions throughout the 1950s and '60s). Most importantly, Adelson documents the moving experiences of such extraordinary men as Percy Miller, who integrated the Carolina League in 1951; future big leaguers Manny Mota and Felipe Alou; future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Billy Williams; and visionary white owners, including Dave Burnett of the Texas League. Adelson's account of their struggles is much more than a good baseball book: it's a detailed history of how the struggle for integration and civil rights played out in the daily life of a profession that just happens to be the national pastime.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Adelson's outstanding survey of the period examines the groundbreaking role of professional baseball, which paved the way for social mixing of blacks and whites and anticipated the victories of the NAACP and the civil rights movement that would soon follow (there's also an excellent account of legislative and judicial decisions throughout the 1950s and '60s). Most importantly, Adelson documents the moving experiences of such extraordinary men as Percy Miller, who integrated the Carolina league in 1951; future big leaguers Manny Mota and Felipe Alou; future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Billy Williams; and visionary white owners, including Dave Burnett of the Texas League. Adelson's account of their struggles is much more than a good baseball book: it's a detailed history of how the struggle for integration and civil rights played out in the daily life of a profession that just happens to be the national pastime." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Adelson presents a slice of recent American history that is not completely gone, and certainly not forgotten. Brushing Back Jim Crow is an aggressive attempt to shed light on minor-league baseball in the South, and the stars who would emerge to change the game - and a society." - Philadelphia Inquirer"

Ingram
Adelson interviews dozens of athletes, managers, and sportswriters to chronicle the social plight of the presence of African-American ballplayers in the minor leagues. 20 illustrations.

Customer Reviews

It's about time!!
This is a wonderful book, recounting a largely unknown story of American and baseball history - how the southern minors' integration was part of the larger civil rights movement. 20th century baseball integration began but did not end with Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby. Unitl now, no one had taken their legacy to the next step. Bruce Adelson now has in a powerful account of what it was like being on the front lines of baseball and civil rights in the Dixie of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Terrific Book!
The author does a great job of capturing both sides of the integration battlefields (ballparks) of the South. He effectively uses narratives of former players, both the famous (Felipe Alou, Billy Williams, etc.)and the not so famous (Joe Durham, Percy Miller Jr., etc.) to detail exactly what those pioneers had to endure. Those narratives are interwoven with clippings from various newspapers of the day to tie the intergration of minor league baseball in the South with the overall racial climate of those cities. This book, I believe, would prove to be an interesting and informative read, even for those who are not baseball fans. Adelson obviously did a lot of research and successfully shows how baseball "broke down the walls" for total integration in the South. Spend the money and the time on this book - it's worth it!

A phenomenal account of the integration of Dixie's minors.
The author has done an excellent job documenting the experiences of Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Felipe Alou and others who broke minor league baseball color lines down south in the years after Jackie Robinson opened up the major leagues. His book includes poignant and compelling interviews with these and other ballplayers who relate their painful experiences of enduring Jim Crow racial restrictions while playing baseball. The author also places their achievements within the historical context of the times, the 1950s and 1960s. These players were truly civil rights pioneers, helping to integrate a closed society. This is a must read!