BRONX, NY – 1968: Reggie Jackson of the Oakland Athletics poses an motion portrait at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York in 1968. (Photograph by Louis Requena /MLB by way of Getty Photos)
(Photograph by Louis Requena /MLB by way of Getty Photos)
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(Photograph by Louis Requena /MLB by way of Getty Photos)
Baseball legend and Corridor of Famer Reggie Jackson returned to Rickwood Area in Birmingham, Ala., this week and recounted the horrors of racial abuse he was compelled to endure there throughout his time within the leagues.
Jackson, 78, was simply 21 years previous when he joined the Birmingham A’s as one of some Black gamers on the minor league group and on the top of violent racial strife within the American South.
“Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it, but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody,” Jackson mentioned on the Fox Sports activities panel for the Negro Leagues tribute recreation on Thursday.
When Jackson arrived in Alabama within the Sixties, the town of Birmingham was making headlines for its open abuse of Black People.
Led by Bull Connor, the infamous metropolis commissioner of Birmingham, racial tensions had been at a fever pitch, marking a peak with the 1963 bombing of the sixteenth Road Baptist Church, which claimed the lives of 4 younger Black women.
“I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say ‘the n***** can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they said, ‘the n***** can’t stay here,’ ” Jackson mentioned.
Alex Rodriguez requested a query. Reggie Jackson answered it.
(Shouts to the producer and remainder of the desk for staying out of Reggie’s manner and simply letting him speak. I doubt they anticipated this reply. Nevertheless it’s an important couple of minutes of tv.)pic.twitter.com/7WqjlppvF8
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) June 21, 2024
“We went to Charlie Finley’s country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word. ‘He can’t come in here.’ Finley marched the whole team out,” Jackson recalled, referencing the Alabama native and Main League Baseball franchisee Charles Finley.
Jackson credited having white mates and allies on his aspect to stay up for him and hold him from doing something which may have jeopardized his profession or his life within the deeply segregated period.
“I would have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight – I’d have got killed here,” he mentioned.
Jackson, who earned the nickname “Mr. October” for his potential to overperform within the postseason, would finally play for 21 seasons within the majors, taking house 5 World Sequence wins.
He retired after the 1987 season and was inducted into the Corridor of Fame in 1993.
