Racism is one the single greatest injustices known to mankind. So much hate and violence that exists in this world comes from racism. African Americans struggle with this everywhere and even struggled with it in the post WWII booming economy at their jobs. Employment discrimination was impossible for African Americans to avoid in this post war era. This discrimination impacted all forms of employment for African Americans including “America’s Game” of baseball. Discrimination in the workplace was a great contributor to the wealth gap that existed post war and still exists today. Workplace discrimination by both employers and co-workers placed a physical and mental strain on African Americans everyday, causing them to feel out of place and
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Soon African Americans began to form their own leagues known as “negro leagues.” Negro leagues teams would often play 200 or more games a season while getting pad next to nothing and always facing constant harassment. These players were doing it for a living and because they loved the sport. It was not until 1947 that an African American finally got their chance to play in the professional leagues with all the white players. This African American was Jackie Robinson who would eventually change baseball and American forever. In the post war era, Jackie Robinson was one of the lucky few to get a chance to play professional baseball. Jackie Robinson making it to the professional leagues was a glimmer of hope for African Americans but this hope would slowly begin to fade. Even while playing for a professional and dominantly white team, Jackie still experienced and faced a great amount of hate and discrimination. While staying a hotel in Philadelphia for a game Jackie and his team were told “your team is not welcome here, not while you have ballclub negros with you." This discrimination African Americans faced in baseball was a constant struggle and often prevented them from playing at all. In 1960 the Boston Red Sox active roster only included one single African American player (shown in figure 1), 13 years after the league became integrated and still only one African American player on one of the teams. Troy’s struggle with the American Dream roots back to his struggle with baseball because he was a great baseball player and felt that if “you could play… then they ought to let you play.” Troy was not fortunate enough to be young enough to play professional baseball when it first became
Soon African Americans began to form their own leagues known as “negro leagues.” Negro leagues teams would often play 200 or more games a season while getting pad next to nothing and always facing constant harassment. These players were doing it for a living and because they loved the sport. It was not until 1947 that an African American finally got their chance to play in the professional leagues with all the white players. This African American was Jackie Robinson who would eventually change baseball and American forever. In the post war era, Jackie Robinson was one of the lucky few to get a chance to play professional baseball. Jackie Robinson making it to the professional leagues was a glimmer of hope for African Americans but this hope would slowly begin to fade. Even while playing for a professional and dominantly white team, Jackie still experienced and faced a great amount of hate and discrimination. While staying a hotel in Philadelphia for a game Jackie and his team were told “your team is not welcome here, not while you have ballclub negros with you." This discrimination African Americans faced in baseball was a constant struggle and often prevented them from playing at all. In 1960 the Boston Red Sox active roster only included one single African American player (shown in figure 1), 13 years after the league became integrated and still only one African American player on one of the teams. Troy’s struggle with the American Dream roots back to his struggle with baseball because he was a great baseball player and felt that if “you could play… then they ought to let you play.” Troy was not fortunate enough to be young enough to play professional baseball when it first became