Reggie Jackson, on live TV from Rickwood Field, shares stark stories of racism

During a live national television interview on Thursday, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson discussed the harsh realities of growing up as a young Black ballplayer during the Jim Crow erahttps://bbcsportss.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/8bdaca9d-db10-4065-850b-c7beca17c0c5_w1200_r1-3.avif. During Fox’s pregame broadcast of Major League Baseball at historic Rickwood Field, Jackson shed tears recalling the taunts, racist epithets, and threats of violence he endured as a minor league player in segregated Birmingham. The voiceovers of A-list Hollywood actors were intercut

“I declared I would never wish to repeat it,” Jackson stated, expressing his unfiltered opinions. “When I went inside restaurants, people would yell, ‘The n—– can’t dine here,’ pointing at me. “The n—– can’t stay here,” people would say to me when I went to a hotel. During our welcome-home luncheon at Charlie Finley’s country club, they called me out using the derogatory term “he can’t come in here.” Finley led the entire group outside. .. We’re going to go eat hamburgers, he stated when they finally allowed me in. We’ll go to wherever you want us t

With special tributes to Willie Mays, the Hall of Famer and former Birmingham Black Barons outfielder who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93, the game was organized as a celebration of the Negro Leagues and its players. However, Jackson’s interview served as a reminder of the struggles he and countless others faced both within and outside of Rickwood.

In 1967, Reggie Jackson was a minor league player who played in Birmingham.

When he returned to Rickwood Field, he talked about the bigotry and harassment he had experienced.

“Coming back here is not easy.”

It’s not easy to return here, Jackson remarked. “The racism I experienced while playing here, the challenges we faced traveling to different places — luckily, I had a manager and teammates who supported me through it — but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

When Charlie Finley brought the Kansas City A’s Double-A team to his home Birmingham in 1967, Jackson was a member of the first integrated professional team to play at Rickwood Field in his second professional season. Tony La Russa, Dave Duncan, Joe Rudi, Rollie Fingers, and Jackson were all on that John McNamara-led squad.

In the year that Jackson made his major league debut, he played 114 games for Birmingham. Jackson only made four appearances there.