Ted Reinstein to be October Museum Speaker

October 9th, the Franklin Historical Museum will feature the Second Sunday Speaker Series with Chronicle's Ted Reinstein discussing his latest book, Before Brooklyn, the unsung heroes who helped break baseball's color barrier. The museum opens at 1:00PM on Sunday with the presentation beginning at 1:15. The Second Sunday Speaker Series is sponsored by the Friends of the Franklin Historical Museum. Admission is always free.

About 'Before Brooklyn'

In April of 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947.

This book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from
communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers
espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country.

It also reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but
Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, and that for a time integrated teams were not that unusual.
And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball
quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.