With deliberate speed, the 1950s saw the reintegration of the white major leagues

Even years after Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Hank Thompson, Willard Brown and Dan Bankhead reintegrated the white major leagues, the United States was still under the dogma of “separate but equal” imposed by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision. This doctrine legalized racially segregated public facilities, so long as the facilities for Black people and whites were equal. As Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award winner Sam Lacy unequivocally said: “Some people were more equal than others.”

The 1896 ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring Black Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites — known as “Jim Crow” laws — and established the “separate but equal” rule that stood for the next six decades.

Overturned by the 1954 Brown v. the Topeka (KS) Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court ordered American schools to be integrated, using the operative words “with all deliberate speed,” which was purposely vague — allowing local school boards to delay, obstruct and generally slow the process of integrating Black and white students.

This built-in ambiguity gave segregationists the opportunity to strategize resistance. Historically, segregated schools and public facilities had been inherently unequal, despite the provision to provide all citizens with equal protection under the law guaranteed in 1868 by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Still, as noted by several media outlets, the Dodgers failed to honor Robinson’s agreement with the Kansas City Monarchs when no compensation was offered for his service. To avoid reparations, Branch Rickey’s radical rhetoric about Negro Leagues teams operating “in the zone of a racket” implied that their team owners were mostly number bankers with criminal intent.

However, research reveals the primary occupations of owners encompassed many professions — from bowling alley operator (Tom Baird) to postal clerk (Ed Bolden), undertakers (Robert Cole, Robert Lewis Sr.), bail bondsman (Tom Bowser), night club owner (Soosa Bridgeforth), restaurant owner (John Connor), pool hall owner (Hugh Cherry), boxing promoter (Gus Greenlee), service station owner (Rev. John Harden), insurance broker (Tom Hayes Jr.), music store owner (Sonnyman Jackson), taxi company owner (Dr. Richard Kent), blues singer (Gatemouth Moore), hotel owner (Joe Rush), dance studio owner (Colonel Strothers), parking garage owner (Sam Sheppard), realtor and chauffeur (Abe Manley), and the Martin brothers’ employment in the medical fields of dentistry, general practitioner, pharmacist and hospital administrator.

During this span, 13 of the original 16 AL and NL teams were integrated, yet the Phillies, Tigers and the Red Sox were still without a Black or Brown face in 1956. Some hesitated to press the integration accelerator.

The stopwatch of senselessness was evident in Roger Kahn’s pivotal 1972 book “The Boys Of Summer,” writing that New York Yankees general manager George Weiss explained at a cocktail party in 1952 why the Yankees were still an all-white team, six years after Robinson signed with the Dodgers.

“I will never allow a Black man to wear a Yankee uniform. Box-holders from Westchester (County) don’t want that sort of crowd. They would be offended to have to sit with [N-word].”

In 1953, the Yankees became the last team yet to integrate to win a World Series when they defeated the Dodgers, who had Robinson, Joe Black, Roy Campanella and Junior Gilliam, in six games. (In retrospect, the 1948 Cleveland Indians, with Doby and Paige, were the first team with color to win a World Series when they beat the Boston Braves in six games.)

After Robinson’s retirement announcement in December 1956, he called out the Phillies, Tigers and the Red Sox in a statement to the Sporting News: “If thirteen major league teams can come up with colored players, why can’t the other three?” In 1957, Cuban shortstop Chico Fernández opened the season with the Phillies, and six days later was joined by John Kennedy, a middle infielder from the Kansas City Monarchs. Kennedy, who had two plate appearances with no hits and no fielding opportunities, was sent to the Class B Carolina League. Former Indianapolis Clowns outfielder Chuck Harmon immediately became Fernández’s roommate.

The Detroit Tigers were owned by Walter Briggs Sr. (from 1935-52) and Walter “Spike” Briggs Jr. (1952-56). Briggs Manufacturing was a vast company, designing cars and supplying various parts and sub-assemblies to automakers that included Chrysler, Ford, Hudson, Lincoln, Packard, Stutz and other models.

So notorious was his refusal to hire Black players that the saying around the Tigers clubhouse and in the factory was “No j*gs with Briggs.” Two years after Tigers ownership changed in 1956, with radio executive Fred Knorr taking the helm, the team would sign Dominican infielder Ozzie Virgil Sr. Yet Virgil did not want the distinction of being the first Black Tiger. He told Detroit News reporter Joe Falls: “I’m not Negro; I’m Dominican; I’m Spanish.” Virgil was replaced the next season by an aging Doby, light-hitting middle infielder Ossie Alvarez and pitcher Jim Proctor, who had one start.

In an Aug. 22, 2017, op-ed to the Detroit Free Press, Walter Briggs Sr.’s great-grandson Harvey Briggs spoke of his grandpa’s philanthropy to the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and noted that he helped found the Detroit Zoo. He did not, however, give gramps a pass that he was “a product of his time” or “no worse than many of his peers in the industry.” Instead, Harvey wanted to acknowledge the truth that, “He (Walter) was a racist.”

In Doby’s book “Pride Against Prejudice,” he mentions arriving in Cleveland on July 4 and having the newly hired African-American assistant public relations director, Louis Jones, assigned to be his roomie. Satchel Paige became his bunkmate the next season.

The percentage of minority players listed in the chart on this page (defined as African American or Latino) is based on outward appearances. As race is principally a social construct, the audience from this time eriod often organized Black and Brown players into one minority group. Latinos before 1947 and since the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, like Armando Marsans, Mike Almeida, Mike González, Jack Calvo, Adolfo Luque, Pete Aragón, José Acosta, Ricardo Torres, Pedro Dibut, Ramón Herrera, Óscar Estrada, Tomás de la Cruz and Chico Hernández, were socially whitewashed by owners to gain admittance. Ironically, these Brown stars also played on Black teams.

The first dark-skinned Latino in the AL or NL was Minnie Miñoso, who joined the defending champion Cleveland Indians in 1949. There he met teammates Paige, Doby and his roommate from the Homestead Grays, Luke Easter.

The 1960 Census reported that Black Americans comprised 11% of the U.S. population. That same year, with all deliberate speed, the Kansas City Athletics became the last major league team to employ an all-white roster for an entire season. They finished in last place, 39 games behind the Yankees.

With Jim Crow behind the wheel at the pedestrian speed of a school bus, the long and winding road to educate and integrate the original 16 teams, over 13 seasons, validates a horrendous testament about injustice on the field toward diversity and equality.

Today’s owners, albeit mostly a racially homogeneous group, welcome players of all colors in their efforts to capture the crown. May that progress continue. Batter Up!

Larry Lester is a curatorial consultant for the Hall of Fame’s ongoing Black Baseball Initiative.