Team First: History of Baseball Integration & Civil Rights

The year 2017 is a special year, the seventieth anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson integrating modern baseball. Robinson's successes and challenges have been documented by baseball and civil rights historians. This three-part book presents the chronological history of baseball integration along with the major civil rights events of the 1940s and 1950s. Team First focuses upon each of the sixteen Major League teams and players (with life stories) who were the first to integrate each team. Some individuals were players of the Negro League, Hall of Famers, and World Series players and others whose notable contribution was only being the first to integrate. Information about owners, general managers, and managers influenced teams' orientation about integration. Rates of integration varied by team. The final three teams to integrate happened ten years after Robinson won the 1947 Rookie of the Year Award. Find out how your favorite team approached integration. How did your team compare to other National League and American League teams? How was your favorite team influenced by early civil rights events?