JOUR 4250: September 20 Review

Last class provided me with quite the history lesson. I never knew there were women in professional baseball, nor did I know there was even a baseball league for black Americans. It was an eye opener for sure.

Our class discussed what we read about women in professional baseball. The league was in decline as more black Americans joined the MLB. In an effort to entertain fans and bring more people out, the league let three women into the league. At first I thought it was a marketing ploy, but these women turned out to be the real deal. Mamie Johnson, Toni Stone and Connie Morgan played for the Negro League for two years before the league disbanded.

After learning how underplayed their roles were in the mainstream media, I predicted I was not the only one who hadn’t been aware of this. If this happened in the MLB, it would be without a doubt heavily reported. Most attention came from the black press before the civil rights movement. Good thing we watched a documentary on the black press because it was just another thing I knew nothing about.

The documentary gave examples of the impact the black press held during its time. It was the voice of the oppressed and the voice of hope, especially for black southerners.

One of the journalists responsible for providing a voice was Robert Sengstacke Abbott (pictured to the right), the founder and editor of “The Chicago Defender.” He wrote with wit and sarcasm and did not hold back. He reported on the southern lynch mobs and the violence aimed toward free black Americans. He instilled hope for those in the south by writing about opportunity and freedom in the north.

Abbott has been associated with the great migration of black southerners to the north. Southerners grew increasingly frustrated as many of their workers left. Many tried to stop the circulation for Abbott’s paper in their towns, causing Abbott to become more strategic with his paper’s distribution. Abbott had his papers handed out to black workers on trains. The workers would toss the papers out the windows as they passed through the towns.

Abbott was not the only writer of his kind. Other black papers spoke out against racism, violence and the mistreatment of black Americans. They provided jobs for black Americans and a place for them to simply be heard.

We all learn about the civil rights movement in school, but I hardly heard about its influences. Leaders like Abbott and breakthroughs like women playing professional baseball are just a few examples of the progress and impact black Americans made before the civil rights movement.