PART III The Forces of Change

The “Double V Campaign”Your Task: Read one of the following, and answer the related questions

Primary Source: The Pittsburgh Courier, February 14, 1942

OR Secondary Source: Double V Campaign - Patriotism Crosses the Color Line: African Americans in World War II, by Clarence Taylor. History Now, Issue 14, December 2007

“Double V Campaign” During WWII the black press in America praised the

contributions and sacrifices black Americans were making as soldiers to help win the war, and used these contributions to call for an end to discrimination and segregations at home in the US. This effort became know as the “Double V Campaign”

“Double V” stood for…• victory overseas in the war against fascism• victory at home in the fight against racism.

Quinn-Ives Act New York State 1942

• The act banned racial discrimination in hiring in New York State.

• With 3 Major League teams calling New York City home, NY Mayor Fiorello Henry LaGuardia formed the Mayor’s Commission on Baseball to study racial discrimination in the the major leagues.

Lester Rodney, Sports Writer For the newspaper The Daily Worker

“Negro soldiers and sailors are among those beloved heroes of the American people who have already died [in WWII] for the preservation of this country and everything this country stands for — yes, including the great game of baseball,”

Lester Rodney’s takes on Baseball’s Commissioner Landis in 1942

“You [Landis], the self-proclaimed ‘Czar’ of baseball, Why the man responsible for keeping Jim Crow in our National Pastime.”

“Why does your silence keep… Negro stars from taking their rightful place in our national pastime at a time when we are at war and Negro and whites are fighting together to end Hitlerism?”

VS

Wendell Smith and the

Pittsburgh Courier

• The Courier was one of the most prominent black newspapers from 1911-1960’s

• Wendell Smith, a sports journalist for Courier who was especially vocal critic of segregation.

• Smith’s articles constantly called for the end to segregation

throughout the United States, including professional baseball.

Wendell Smith takes on the Major Leagues

Smith Compared the anti-Semitism of Hitler’s Germany with the segregation of baseball. He claimed that the major leagues played…“the same game as Hitler. They discriminate, segregate, and hold down a minor race just as he does. While Hitler cripples the Jews, the leaders of our national pastime refuse to recognize our black ball players”

-Pittsburgh Courier, December 10, 1938

Your task:

1. Read two of Wendell Smith’s articles from the Pittsburgh Courier in 1945.

2. Answer the related questions

Branch Rickey

• 1942- Hired as General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers

• 1943- The Dodgers

board of directors approved Rickey’s plan to begin a search for the “right” black player to break the color-line.

http://www.sabr.org Society for American Baseball Research

• 1944- Baseball’s Commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis Dies

• Landis was replaced by Albert “Happy” Chandler

A New Commissioner Albert “Happy” Chandler

• Former US Senator and Governor of Kentucky

• Became Commissioner of Baseball in 1945

• Favored the desegregation of baseball

“Happy” Quotes

"For twenty-four years Judge Landis wouldn't let a black man play… Landis consistently blocked any attempts to put blacks and whites together on a big league field.“

"If they (black men) can fight and die on Okinawa, Guadalcanal [and] in the South Pacific, they can play ball in America."

Jackie RobinsonThe Trailblazer

http://www.californiahistorian.com

Early years• Born January 31, 1919, in

Cairo, Georgia.• Raised in Southern

California• Attended college at UCLA

California where he was star in 4 sports

• Left college due to financial hardship

• Moved to Hawaii to play semi-pro football.

http://www.umass.edu/pubaffs/jackie/

Jackie Robinson• Drafted into the U.S. Army in

1942 and promoted from Private to Second Lieutenant

• In the Army Robinson challenged racial discrimination when he refused to move to the back of a segregated bus during training.

• honorably discharged from the Army in 1944

http://www.umass.edu/pubaffs/jackie/

1945- In the Negro Leagues

• Played for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945

• Played 47 games • .387 Batting Average• 5 home runs• 13 stolen bases• Played in the 1945

Negro League All-Star Game

http://www.umass.edu/pubaffs/jackie/

1945- Signing with the Dodgers

Jim Crow in baseball came crashing when Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers

http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/jackie

1946

Jackie Robinson spent the 1946 playing for the Minor League Montreal Royals

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/Library/african/2000/1940.htm

April 15, 1947• Jackie Robinson made his major

league debut

• Almost 27,000 were in attendance at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn NY, to see the Dodgers 1st baseman break the color major league barrier

• 14,000 of those Ebbets Field fans were Black

• Later that season Jackie was named National League Rookie of the Year

Larry DobyFirst Black Player in the American League

• Signed by Cleveland Indians in July 1947… just 3 months after Robinson broke the MLB color barrier

• 7 time all-star

• Helped the Indians win the American League pennant and the World Series in 1948

Satchel Signs with Cleveland• Leroy “Satchel” Paige singed a

Major League contract on his 42nd birthday (July 7, 1948) with the Cleveland Indians

• He was the first black pitcher in the American League

• In 1971, Leroy "Satchel" Paige was elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Wrapping-Up Part III

In groups:Share and compare the notes you have taken on Part III and Jackie Robinson

Individually:Why was the color barrier in professional baseball bound to come crashing down in the 1940’s?

*Follow the directions on your assignment handout

1947 Jackie Robinson breaks the color-

line in Major League Baseball

Quinn-Ives Act

“Happy” Chandler Becomes Commissioner of Baseball

Branch Rickey becomes the GM of the Brooklyn

Dodgers

“Double V Campaign”

Journalists like Lester Rodney and Wendell

Smith The Negro Leagues