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A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball's American League
In 1947, as the integration of Major League Baseball began, the once-daring American League had grown reactionary, unwilling to confront postwar challenges--population shifts, labor issues and, above all, racial integration. The league had matured in the Jim Crow era, when northern cities responded to the Great Migration by restricting black access to housing, transportation, accommodations and entertainment, while blacks created their own institutions, including baseball's Negro Leagues. As the political climate changed and some major league teams realized the necessity of integration, the American League proved painfully reluctant. With the exception of the Cleveland Indians, integration was slow and often ineffective. This book examines the integration of baseball--widely viewed as a triumph--through the experiences of the American League and finds only a limited shift in racial values. The teams accepted few black players and made no effort to alter management structures, and organized baseball remained an institution governed by tradition-bound owners.
- GenresBaseball
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2023
McGregor shows remarkable narrative discipline. I feel like I went to school on the development and intrepid but precarious existence of the Negro Leagues, background to the book's main subject, but he never got bogged down. He showed a knack for touching on the current of history where they were relevant but never digressing in a way that would inhibit the reader's focus. He definitely kept my attention for as long as he asked for it.
September 22, 2015
Fascinating story of the development of African American players in the American League of MLB after the initial signing of Larry Doby by the Cleveland Indians. The AL clearly lagged far behind the signing and development of black ballplayers, resulting in inferior production on the ball fields.
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