President Biden signed the "Jackie Robinson Ballpark National Commemorative Act" on Saturday. It designates Daytona Beach's 110-year-old Jackie Robinson Ballpark as a commemorative site and "makes it a part of the African American Civil Rights Network," according to a story in Monday morning's Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The article caught my eye because it was headed by a big photo of the ballpark's statue of Jackie Robinson handing a baseball to two young fans. Robinson's jersey said "Royals." This isn't news to locals as Robinson first played here for the Triple-A Montreal Royals on March 17, 1946. That was more than a year before his April 15, 1947, MLB debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Robinson is celebrated every April 15 on his namesake day at every MLB park. He is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He broke every record worth breaking. He died way too young in 1972. He's idolized by millions.
But the 1940s were no picnic for a black big-league ballplayer. He was all alone in Daytona and Brooklyn and every ballpark he played in. He got death threats and hate mail. He was yelled at by hateful whites. Some players refused to play with him.
It was hell playing in Brooklyn, Cleveland, and Chicago. Imagine how hard it was to play in Deep South Daytona. Some will say that a beach town in Florida was different, say, than Selma or Little Rock. There was prejudice but it was a more laid-back wastin'-away-in-Margaritaville kind of racism. But it was in the air and on the ground. And in some dark hearts.
When my family moved to Daytona in 1964, blacks were not permitted on the beachside after dark. They had their own beach named for the Bethune family of educators, a family so esteemed there is a college named in their honor and Mary McCloud Bethune's statue was installed in 2022 in the Florida display in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building, the first statue of an African-American in that hall. Many whites in Daytona called Bethune Beach "N-words Beach." The first black surfer I surfed with appeared at our beach in 1969. Coaches at my Catholic high school recruited black players for our football and basketball teams which made us the only integrated high school among the four in Daytona (the rest weren't integrated until the 1970s).
But worse things happened in this part of Florida:
From a "Freedom Never Dies" special on WUCF, a PBS station at University of Central Florida in Orlando:
By 1930, four thousand blacks had been lynched nationwide by white mobs, vigilantes, or the Klan. Most of these occurred in the Deep South, many with law enforcement complicity. And while Alabama and Mississippi had more total lynchings, it was Florida, surprisingly, that had the highest per capita rate of lynching from 1900-1930.
"Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore" documentary debuted on PBS stations nationwide 24 years ago Jan. 12. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee narrated. Sweet Honey In The Rock and Toshi Reagon performed original music. Here's some background information from the WUCF web site:
Combining Murder Mystery, Incisive Biography and an Eye-Opening Portrait of Jim Crow Florida, "Freedom Never Dies" Sheds New Light on one of America's Earliest and Most Fearless Fighters for Civil Rights.
In 1951 after celebrating Christmas Day, civil rights activist Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriette retired to bed in their white frame house tucked inside a small orange grove in Mims, Florida [Mims is in north Brevard County, a 45-minute drive from Jackie Robinson Ballpark]. Ten minutes later, a bomb shattered their house, their lives and any notions that the south's post-war transition to racial equality would be a smooth one. Harry Moore died on the way to the hospital; his wife died nine days later.
"Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore" explores the life and times of this enigmatic leader, a distinguished school teacher whose passionate crusade for equal rights could not be discouraged by either the white power structure or the more cautious factions of his own movement. Although Moore's assassination was an international cause celebre in 1951, it was overshadowed by following events and eventually almost forgotten.
"Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore" produced by The Documentary Institute, restores Moore to his rightful place in the Civil Rights saga.
3 comments:
Mike, excellent and important post. My father was born & raised in Hartwell, GA and moved to Chicago when he graduated HS. I remember driving down to Hartwell in our old Rambler Station Wagon in 1963 I think to visit my grandmother who had the house with the big white columns and the Servants Staircase. Not to far from there we stopped to get gas and use the restroom-there were 3-Men's Women's and Colored. Wow. BTW, KC is home to the Negro League Baseball museum, a must see for anyone coming to KC. Very well run, fun and educational. The world premiere of the movie "42" was in KC. Went to it and got autographs from the KC Royals players sitting behind us. Thanks for posting this important story of Daytona and the South.
From 1964, when we moved to Daytona, and 1978, when I departed for the West, I never heard Jackie Robinson mentioned. The place was called City Island Ballpark where the local MLB farm team played and the old Montreal Expos during spring training. It's now home to the Daytona Tortugas, a double-A team (I think). What I used to look at as a dinky old ballpark is a local shrine, now a national one. The KC Royal were a Negro League team? I just skipped right over that. I now have more reasons for Chris and I to visit KC. The Page family and museums.
MIke, the KC Negro League team was actually the Kansas City Monarchs. The Negro League formation took place at a YMCA near the current Negro League Museum in KC. But yes, a very good reason to visit KC!
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