Reggie Jackson shares searing stories of racism at Negro Leagues tribute
Brought onto a set Thursday to share memories of playing at a historic baseball stadium in Alabama, MLB Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson expressed raw, unsparing thoughts about the racism he experienced decades ago.
“I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, ‘The … can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they would say, ‘The … can’t stay here,’ ” the 78-year-old told a Fox Sports panel that featured recently retired major -league stars Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter.
The comments came ahead of an MLB game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants staged at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field.
Billed as the country’s oldest ballpark, it was home to the Negro Leagues’ Black Barons as well as the minor league Birmingham Barons.
As part of its efforts to honor the Negro Leagues, MLB brought Thursday’s game to Rickwood Field, where Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. were among a number of notable Black former players on hand.
The pregame festivities included a tribute to Willie Mays, who died Tuesday at 93 and whose remarkable career included a stint with the Black Barons.
As a young member of the Athletics’ organization in 1967, just before the major league club moved from Kansas City to Oakland, Jackson played for Birmingham at Rickwood Field and other ballparks in the South. On Thursday, he said returning to Birmingham was “not easy.”
“The racism, when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled – fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team who helped me get through it,” he said.
Jackson then shared a sentiment he repeated several times during the Fox Sports interview: “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
The former slugger for the A’s, Orioles, Yankees and Angels credited a number of white teammates, plus then-manager John McNamara, with helping him get through that period. Jackson said he spent several nights a week for many weeks sleeping on their couches until they received threats to “burn our apartment complex down” if he didn’t leave. Jackson added that his Birmingham teammates – including Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi, who went on to win three World Series with him in Oakland – saved him from getting into physical confrontations with Southern racists.
“I’d have got killed here, because I’d have beat somebody’s …” Jackson said Thursday, referring to the history of lynchings of Black people by white mobs. “You’d have saw me in an oak tree somewhere.”
It’s not the first time that Jackson, who finished his 21-year MLB career with 563 homers and five World Series titles, has spoken of his experiences with racism. He has alleged it played a role in the Mets’ decision to pass on him with the No. 1 pick in the 1966 MLB draft in favor of Steve Chilcott, a white player who never reached the major leagues.
“Race is always on my mind, even today,” Jackson said in 2013 in an essay for Salon. “If you’re a minority, it’s on your mind.”