TIMELINE:
1942 Birth of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton.
1940s A total of 6,770,000 workers take part in 14,000 strikes during WWII.
24
LESTER RODNEY HELPS BREAK
BASEBALL'S COLOR LINE
BASEBALL'S COLOR LINE
In 1937, baseball was a segregated, primarily Eastern sport… but in the
off-season, major leaguers often competed against Negro League teams in
California. Against that backdrop, second-year phenom Joe DiMaggio was
asked to name the toughest pitcher he had ever faced. Without hesitation, the
Yankee Clipper told a group of reporters: “Satchel Paige.”
Predictably, Joe D.'s honest appraisal went unmentioned in the next day's newspapers…
with one exception. Lester Rodney (b. 1911) not only reported DiMaggio's comment, he made it a
huge headline in the sports pages of the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the U.S. Communist Party.
The Brooklyn-born Rodney waged a relentless and effective campaign to publicly excoriate and
humiliate baseball's commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. “A blatant racist,” Rodney
called Landis. “The baseball owners of that period couldn't have picked a more appropriate man
to represent their policies. He simply kept denying that there was a color barrier. I would write
stories with headlines like Can You Read, Judge Landis?' and ‘Can You Hear, Judge Landis?’
off-season, major leaguers often competed against Negro League teams in
California. Against that backdrop, second-year phenom Joe DiMaggio was
asked to name the toughest pitcher he had ever faced. Without hesitation, the
Yankee Clipper told a group of reporters: “Satchel Paige.”
Predictably, Joe D.'s honest appraisal went unmentioned in the next day's newspapers…
with one exception. Lester Rodney (b. 1911) not only reported DiMaggio's comment, he made it a
huge headline in the sports pages of the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the U.S. Communist Party.
The Brooklyn-born Rodney waged a relentless and effective campaign to publicly excoriate and
humiliate baseball's commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. “A blatant racist,” Rodney
called Landis. “The baseball owners of that period couldn't have picked a more appropriate man
to represent their policies. He simply kept denying that there was a color barrier. I would write
stories with headlines like Can You Read, Judge Landis?' and ‘Can You Hear, Judge Landis?’
71
… YOU'RE NOT
SUPPOSED TO KNOW
SUPPOSED TO KNOW