"Wouldn’t wish it on anyone": MLB icon Reggie Jackson details racism he faced
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Negro League legend Bill Greason throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the 2024 Rickwood game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals on June 20 in Birmingham, Ala. Photo: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images
In the 1960s, Reggie Jackson's budding baseball career took the now-legendary outfielder to Alabama, where he was regularly singled out, called the n-word and denied service at businesses.
Why it matters: Jackson shared the harrowing details at an MLB event Thursday night honoring Black players' contributions to the game, shedding harsh light on the racism they faced as they fought for a place in the sport — and a divided American society.
Driving the news: Jackson, who is of Black and Puerto Rican descent, played in the minors for the Birmingham A's before his big league debut.
- "Coming back here is not easy," the Hall of Famer said before Thursday's game at Alabama's Rickwood Field, the historic home of the A's and the oldest professional ball park in the country.
- "I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, 'The [n-word] can't eat here'. I would go to a hotel and they would say, 'The [n-word] can't stay here'," Jackson told a panel as he described traveling with the team.
- "I wouldn't wish it on anyone," he said.
The big picture: At the time, Alabama was in the throes of desegregation, with the Ku Klux Klan having bombed the Baptist Street Church in Birmingham just a few years prior.
Zoom in: Jackson credited his white friends and team manager for helping him survive his time in the South.
- "If I couldn't eat in a place, nobody would eat," Jackson told the panel. "If I couldn't stay in a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I can stay."
- "If it had not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudi — I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half," Jackson said, his voice breaking.
- "Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out."
Zoom out: Thursday's game took on new meaning with the death earlier this week of Willie Mays, the Alabama-born outfielder viewed as one of the best baseball players of all time.
- Before becoming one of the first Black players to join the MLB, Mays played at Rickwood as a Birmingham Black Baron in the Negro Leagues in the 1940s.
- Jackson, who went on to earn the nickname "Mr. October" for his powerful MLB post-season performances decades later, said Mays was a role model who shaped his style on the field.
- The event Thursday — and Jackson's recounting of the racism he faced even after baseball was desegregated — come as the Negro Leagues and those who played in them receive better recognition for their accomplishments.
Go deeper: MLB grants "major" status to Negro Leagues
