ROBINSON, MAYS, AND GREEN: A HISTORY OF RACISM BY THE

BOSTON RED SOX

By TB

1
 The Boston Red Sox franchise, founded in 1901,1 is abundantly rich in history now that it

has outlived even its oldest fans. The Red Sox are home to the City of Boston, known for

prestigious Universities and early abolition of slavery.2 The Boston Red Sox, however, were the

last team to integrate African Americans in Major League baseball.3 Through the lens of

baseball, this paper intends to provide a legal history of employment discrimination in

Massachusetts. Furthermore, it hopes to answer the question of how the Boston Red Sox’s

reputation in a city once known for the inclusion of African Americans, has been irreparably

damaged due to racial discrimination over the past century. This paper will investigate the stories

of Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, and their place in the Red Sox’s

history of employment discrimination through the use of historically recorded examples of the

Boston Red Sox’s strategies and schemes to continually expel and/or limit African Americans

from employment within their Major League baseball franchise. By doing so, this paper hopes to

provide an understanding of the individual perspectives, experiences, and discrimination that

manifested in the daily life of exceptionally talented African American baseball players during

the 20th century.

THE FEDERAL LAW

It is hard to understand the culture of a baseball team without a little historical

background. To understand Red Sox history, one has to understand the plight of African

Americans in Boston during a time when racism was a country-wide social phenomenon. To

begin, there would be no employment discrimination law without the abolishment of slavery in

1
Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Boston Red Sox, available at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boston-
Red-Sox.
2
Howard Bryant, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston at 15-17 (2002).
3
Id. at 2.

2
Massachusetts. The Commonwealth was one of the first states to officially abolish slavery in the

country in 1783.4 Soon after the Massachusetts Constitution was formed in 1780, the

Massachusetts Supreme Court held that laws and customs that sanctioned slavery were

incompatible with the new state Constitution.5 However, the mere abolishment of slavery was

surely not the end of Boston’s struggles with race and discrimination; it was the beginning.

Boston, during the late 1800’s, was once considered a refuge for blacks fleeing from the

South.6 During that time, pioneers such as Frederik Douglas, led the anti-slavery movement and

Boston developed a reputation that the City was accepting of blacks within their City limits.7

One early Harvard educated black Boston advocate named William Monroe Trotter wrote about

Boston during that time stating, “Welcome to the Home of Abolition, where it is no crime to be

black.”8 Boston, however, was far from the black paradise depicted by African American writers

of the time.

The Federal law in the United States was shifting during the 1800’s as well. On

December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

except as a punishment for crime and allowed Congress to enforce this power by appropriate

legislation.9 In April of the following year, Congress’s first attempt to use this new legislative

power came in the form of the first Civil Rights Act of 1866. This Act declared “all persons born

in the United States and not subjected to any foreign power… are hereby declared to be citizens

of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous

condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime… shall have the

4
Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery, available at http://www.mass.gov/courts/court-
info/sjc/edu-res-center/abolition/abolition1-gen.html.
5
Id.
6
Bryant, supra note 2, at 15.
7
Id.
8
Id. at 16.
9
U.S. Const. amend. XIII.

3
same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to

sue… and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings in the security of persons and

property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to punishments and penalties, and to

none other…”10 Senator Lyman Trumbull, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in his

address on January 29, 1866 stated, “the whole purpose of the bill” was to provide (1) that there

should be no discrimination in civil rights on account of race; and (2) that inhabitants of every

race shall have the same right to contract, sue, take and dispose of property, bring actions and

give evidence, and to equal benefit of all laws for the security of the person and property.11

Trumbull said in a speech a month before the Act was passed, he hoped the statute would

“provide for the real freedom of their former slaves.”12 The statute provided for the first time a

claim of action for African Americans to sue on the basis of race discrimination.

These rights were enlarged by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, providing “All

persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are

citizens of the United States, and subject of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or

enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United

States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of

law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”13 In 1870,

The Fifteenth Amendment declared further that the right of citizens of the United States to vote

should not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on account of race, color,

or previous condition of servitude.14 These Amendments and the first Civil Rights Act were

10
42 USCS § 1981, formerly 14 Stat. L., 27, chap 31 (1866).
11
2 Bernard Shwartz, Statutory History of the United States Civil, 99 (1969).
12
Id.
13
U.S. Const. amend. XIV.
14
U.S. Const. amend. XV.

4
considered massive wins for the African American community during the time and showed

Congress’s intent in providing for a country that included civil rights for all citizens after the

Civil War.

The last civil rights legislation by Congress during this time was the Civil Rights Act of

1875, which had profound impact on the rights of African Americans in the public sphere. The

Act declared that all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States should be entitled to the

full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns,

public conveyances on land and water, theaters and other places of public amusement, subject

only to the conditions of law and applicable to all citizens of every race and color, regardless of

previous condition of servitude.15 However, the success of the Act was short lived because it

was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Civil Rights Cases in 1883.16 This

case was the compilation of seven claims from African Americans of discrimination in public

accommodations.17 The Court held that the Federal Government could not enact legislation that

impacted the right of private individuals and organizations to discriminate against African

Americans.18 The Court further held that States individually may pass civil rights laws, but

Congress did not have the power to do so.19 Facing an embarrassing loss in the Supreme Court,

the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last effort by Congress in the Reconstruction Era to

guarantee civil rights for African Americans.20

The Civil Rights Cases of 1883, effectively slammed the door shut on the Federal

Government’s ability to govern issues of discrimination in private employment.21 The Court’s

15
18 Stat. 335.
16
The Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883)
17
Herbert Hill, Black Labor and the American Legal System: Race, Work, and the Law at 72 (1977)
18
Id.
19
Id.
20
Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, 111 (1969).
21
Hill, supra note 17, at 63.

5
decision in the Civil Rights Cases only struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the Civil

Rights Act of 1866 was still valid law, but the Court would continue to narrow the applicability

of the Federal government’s authority.22 In Hodges v. United States23 in 1906, a group of white

men terrorized several African Americans to prevent them from working at a sawmill and were

charged under the 1866 statute.24 The Court went far beyond their previous holding in the Civil

Rights Cases, and held that the 1866 Act and Thirteenth Amendment only applied to someone

who was actually enslaved, and not to the private ability for citizens to discriminate against

African Americans in contracts.25 Incredibly, the Court’s decision would effectively allow for

blacks to be mistreated and discriminated against in all spheres of private employment and only

the States individually could propose law that impacted private contracts.26 This decision would

shape legal discrimination theory for nearly a century.27 It wouldn’t be until 1969, in the

Supreme Court case Jones v. Mayer,28 that the language of the 1866 law would be revived and

the Court found that it did have the power to enforce federal legislation protecting African

Americans from private acts of discrimination in employment contracts.29 For nearly a century

before that, the private act of discrimination had been considered beyond the reach of federal

law.30 Until the Jones case, the post Civil War federal law was narrowly constricted and did not

protect African Americans beyond mere prevention of slavery and it was the responsibility of the

individual States to pass antidiscrimination laws.

22
Id. at 74.
23
Hodges v. United States, 203 U.S. 1 (1906)
24
Hill, supra note 17, at 74.
25
Id.
26
Id.
27
Id.
28
Jones v. Mayer, 392 U.S. 409 (1968)
29
Hill, supra note 17, at 63.
30
Id. at 64

6
 MASSACHUSETTS LAW

African Americans who left the south and lived in Massachusetts during the early 1900’s

were victims of an oppressive social climate. Most were servants and small farmers and had little

opportunity to learn urban roles.31 Most African Americans in Boston were household servants

or laborers and among the few tradesmen, the most common was barber.32 In total during the

turn of the century, 61% of African Americans in Boston held a menial occupation such as

servant, waiter, porter, helper and laborer.33 African Americans were prepared for only the

lowest of jobs in the Commonwealth and legal discrimination kept them from developing the

necessary training to find anything better.34

Due to the failure of the federal government to have authority to pass antidiscrimination

law, this led Massachusetts to declare its own civil rights laws during the late 1800’s and early

1900’s. The first legislation protecting African Americans by Massachusetts was the Public

Accommodations Act in May of 1865.35 The law provided protection from discrimination in

public spaces and declared that there should be no distinction, discrimination, or restriction on

account of race in any inn, public place, public conveyance, or public meeting.36 The next year’s

laws included theaters, but the act was weakened providing there should be no exclusion or

restriction “except for good cause.”37 In 1893, the Act added barber shops to the list.38 In 1895,

the statute was revised and increased the criminal penalties and for the first time included a

provision for a civil remedy providing that the person aggrieved could recover between twenty-

31
Leon Mayhew, Law and Equal Opportunity: A Study of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination at
37 (1968).
32
Id.
33
Id.
34
Id.
35
Id. at 36.
36
Id.
37
Mass Acts 1866, ch. 252, at 242.
38
Mass Acts 1893, ch. 436, at 1320.

7
five and three hundred dollars from the offender.39 The civil recovery was later increased to five

hundred dollars in 1934.40 The list would be expanded in 1953 when Massachusetts legislators

passed a bill that prohibited discrimination in inns, motels, common carriers, elevators, gas

stations, retail stores, establishments, dispensing personal services, restaurants, bars, beauty

salons, libraries, sporting events, and more.41 These civil rights laws enabled by the

Massachusetts legislature provided a win for African American civil rights in the legislature, but

did little more than merely codify civil rights law.42

The once powerful black political and legal movement would be degraded during the

early 1900’s and the Irish American political position grew more powerful and their influence

increased as they began to control the City of Boston’s financial and philanthropic institutions.43

Irish Americans were bitter towards blacks and the two groups fought for a foothold in American

society.44 Although both groups were largely poor, the Irish Americans had one obvious but

massive advantage over the blacks of the time – they were white.45 By the early 1900’s, blacks

and whites relationship in the City of Boston, once praised as a home of abolition and equality,

ended as quick as it came. It would take over a half a century for progress that once seemed

inevitable to begin again in Boston; it’s story rooted and intertwined with that of the Boston Red

Sox and team owner Tom Yawkey.

39
Mass Acts 1953, ch. 437, at 349.
40
Mass Acts 1934, ch. 138, at 131.
41
Mass Acts 1953, ch. 437, at 349.
42
Francis H. Fox, Discrimination and Antidiscrimination in Massachusetts Law, 44 B.U.L. Rev. 30, 58 (1964).
43
Bryant, supra note 2, at 22.
44
Id.
45
Id.

8
 TOM YAWKEY AS OWNER

The richest part of Red Sox history of racial conflict starts with the introduction of Tom

Yawkey, born February 21, 1903.46 Yawkey inherited an exceptional amount of wealth from his

relatives at a young age with a fortune estimated to be between $7 million and $20 million

dollars.47 Yawkey purchased the failing Red Sox team in 1930 for $1.25 million dollars.48

Yawkey, as owner, had to take on the massive responsibility of converting the Red Sox who had

just lost 111 games in a single season; the worst record in franchise history.49 Yawkey undertook

the enormous responsibility of finding prospective talent across the country and creating a farm

system for prospects during a time where communication, transportation, and logistical issues

were abundant.50 Yawkey acquired some of the best players in the American league with his own

money and after suffering the 111 loss season, he turned the Red Sox into a .500 team in 2

years.51 By 1938, they were the second best team in major league baseball.52 The Red Sox in the

1930’s were called “the Millionaires,” and players became accustomed to incredibly large

salaries.53 By the late 1930’s the team acquired future star players Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams,

and Dom DiMaggio.54 The 1942 team posted the best record since 1915 with a record of 93-59.55

In a little over a decade, Tom Yawkey had flipped the Red Sox from an embarrassing team to

one of the best in baseball and became a hero in the City of Boston. He was deemed an

incredibly successful baseball owner of the time, but his success was overshadowed by the

46
Mark Armour, Tom Yawkey, available at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/6382f9d5.
47
Id.
48
Id.
49
Id.
50
Id.
51
Mark Armour, supra note 46.
52
Id.
53
Id.
54
Id.
55
Id.

9
historical accounts of his attitude towards African Americans and his refusal to have any blacks

on his teams.

If there was one absolute truth about Tom Yawkey, it was his devoted obsession with his

finances and his investment in the Red Sox. In the Red Sox Century, Glenn Stout and Richard A.

Johnson called Yawkey, “the richest boy in the world.”56 Yawkey cared not for social justice,

Massachusetts antidiscrimination law, or the equality of all races within the sport of baseball or

within America overall. Yawkey, during a 1946 baseball committee suggested to the entire

league that if too many blacks were on the field, then the national pastime would suffer and

ticket sales would go down.57 Yawkey took this mere suggestion to the extreme within the

confines of his own ballpark. In the 1950’s, no blacks were allowed to hit homeruns or pitch 90

mile per hour fastballs at Fenway, furthermore no blacks were even allowed to mop the floors or

clean the stadium.58 Not a single black person was employed at Fenway Park during those

years.59 Tom Yawkey’s reputation is disputed by fans over the generations, however, one fact

that was abundantly clear was that he was a very wealthy man and he was not going to let social

justice get in the way of his investment.

Yawkey knew how to make money. Although he did not incorporate any blacks in his

franchise, he knew he could not be outward with his racist attitude.60 He did not berate blacks in

the news or in the press of the days.61 Yawkey’s relationship with the Boston press proved to be

vastly important in the 1950’s when the Red Sox continued to stall on allowing blacks to play for

the Red Sox while the rest of the league began starting black players on their teams.62 The

56
Bryant, supra note 2, at 24.
57
Id.
58
Id. at 25.
59
Id.
60
Id.
61
Id.
62
Id.

10
Boston press was largely reluctant to expose the Red Sox for discriminating against blacks and

failing to employ them.63 There were also far more newspapers in the city of Boston during the

1950’s than today.64 Marty Nolan, who was a leading political journalist summed up the state of

the Boston press comparing it to Chicago in the 1920’s stating, “lots of papers, all of them

bad.”65 Even the Boston Herald would not report about the Red Sox’s anti-black policies because

it owned WHDH, which was the Red Sox flagship radio station.66 Yawkey was one of the most

powerful men in Boston and the press of the time knew better than to cross him.

Yawkey employed another scheme in his efforts to make sure no blacks played at

Fenway Park and to keep his reputation clean from accusations. During the early years of

ownership from 1933 to 1958, Yawkey put his absolute faith and trust in two people, Eddie

Collins and Joe Cronin.67 These two team managers would control all player movements in the

Red Sox organization.68 The Red Sox would also hire some of the sports worst racists to manage

their players, such as Mike “Pinky” Higgins who served as a general manager and field manager

and who once infamously said to a reporter “they’ll be no niggers on this ballclub if I have

anything to do with it.”69 Under Yawkey’s supervision, these men made sure no blacks would

play at Fenway Park under his watchful eye. During the time the Red Sox began to develop a

farm system for players, Yawkey bought teams in Louisville and Birmingham which were

notoriously two of the worst regions for black prospects and conveniently used these clubs as an

excuse to avoid integration.70 The Red Sox began to adopt the characteristics of a southern team

63
Id. at 26.
64
Id. at 6.
65
Id.
66
Id.
67
Id. at 43.
68
Id.
69
6 Glenn Stout, Tryout and Fallout: Race, Jackie Robinson, and the Red Sox, Massachusetts Historical Review, 25
(2004).
70
Bryant, supra note 2, at 44.

11
under Collins and Cronin.71 Yawkey even owned a plantation in South Carolina he would invite

his friends to fish and hunt.72 He also financed a brothel in Georgetown used as a stopover.73

Although the Red Sox were a Boston team, they possessed a Southern ball club culture that was

anti-black from the beginning of Yawkey’s days as owner. The Red Sox “old boys club” attitude

was led by Yawkey and his two deputies Eddie Collins and Joe Cronin.

THE FIRST STRIKE - JACKIE ROBINSON

The most popular example of the Red Sox and their utter and complete distaste for black

athletes was their failure to sign one of the most influential and powerful athletes of the past

century, Jackie Robinson. Robinson was the first player to break the color line in baseball in

1947 and was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.74 Robinson was an incredible

athlete and won rookie of the year and a national League MVP.75 But while Robinson’s

accomplishments on the field were impressive, he will be remembered forever for his

contributions off the field as one of the most powerful proponents of the civil rights movement.

On April 15th every year, major league baseball celebrates “Jackie Robinson Day” in honor of

him and his accomplishments.76 The Boston Red Sox had a chance to sign Jackie Robinson

before he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.77 His tryout, however, was nothing but a

farce and the Boston Red Sox will be denounced forever for their utter humiliation of Jackie

Robinson during a tryout in 1945.78

71
Id.
72
Id.
73
Id.
74
National Baseball Hall of Fame, Jackie Robinson, available at https://baseballhall.org/hof/robinson-jackie.
75
Id.
76
Id.
77
Stout, supra note 69, at 11.
78
Id.

12
 The story of Jackie Robinson and his tryout with the Boston Red Sox echoes through the

halls of history as the premier example of the Red Sox and Tom Yawkey’s anti-black policies.

The story of Robinson’s tryout and his career in baseball starts not with him, but with a rule that

was in place before he was even born. This rule was the long accepted “gentleman’s agreement”

among baseball owners between 1887 and 1947.79 The agreement was not written down and it

didn’t need to be. The agreement was understood by any player who picked up a baseball back

then. The agreement was that no African Americans were allowed to play major league

baseball.80 This barrier held steadfast in its exclusion of blacks from the major league sport and

Jackie Robinson was meant to be no exception.

This agreement would be wholly incompatible with modern day laws in the United States

and Massachusetts. However, during the days of Yawkey’s ownership the laws in the United

States and Massachusetts’s were very different. Although blacks were beginning to gain a

foothold in the realm of civil rights through Massachusetts’s legislation during the first half of

century, the civil remedy in Massachusetts’s for discrimination in a “public place kept for hire,

gain, or reward” was merely five-hundred dollars.81 This remedy would mean little players like

Jackie Robinson at the time when players like the Red Sox’s own, Ted Williams, was making

$90,000 in 1951.82 The laws at the time in Massachusetts’s simply didn’t adequately remedy a

player of Jackie Robinson’s talent and skill in the world of baseball. Robinson would later go on

to make $36,000 in 1950 for the Brooklyn Dodgers.83 The cost for pursuing a legal remedy under

79
Id. at 12.
80
Id.
81
Mass Acts 1934, chap. 138, at 131.
82
Michael Haupert, MLB’s Annual Salary Leaders since 1874, available at http://sabr.org/research/mlbs-annual-
salary-leaders-1874-2012.
83
Baseball Reference, Jackie Robinson, available at https://www.baseball-
reference.com/players/r/robinja02.shtml#all_br-salaries.

13
Massachusetts’s law against the Red Sox was not worth the insignificant five hundred dollar

remedy and the potential retaliation by the Red Sox and other baseball franchises.

While there was no adequate legal remedy in the Courts for black baseball players, a

remedy in the court of public opinion began to form as a paradigm shift in American culture

occurred after World War II. The war, being the most historic event in world history during the

century, had a profound effect in one of the most unlikely of places, major league baseball. The

war exposed one of the inherent contradictions of inequality of the time, if a black man was

allowed to risk dying for his country on the battlefield, then why wasn’t a black man allowed to

play major league baseball?84 One of the loudest voices troubled by this contradiction was a

Boston native, Isadore Muchnick.85 Muchnick was a Harvard Law educated Boston City

Councilman in 1944, known for his progressive views on social reform within the City of

Boston.86 Muchnick was perturbed by the Red Sox and Tom Yawkey’s acceptance of baseball’s

unwritten rule barring blacks.87 He devised a plan to force them to consider blacks on their

roster. Boston’s “Blue Laws” at the time banned playing baseball on Sundays.88 The Red Sox

needed a waiver from the City in order to play baseball on Sundays, which were one of the most

popular days at the stadium. Historically, the Red Sox were granted this waiver with no debate.89

Muchnick’s plan threatened to block the waiver unless the Red Sox considered black applicants

for their team.90 One of Yawkey’s deputies, Eddie Collins, responded to Muchnick’s threat

saying, “We [the Red Sox] had never had a single request for a try-out by a colored applicant.”91

84
Stout, supra note 69, at 12.
85
Id.
86
Id.
87
Id.
88
Id.
89
Id.
90
Id. at 13.
91
Id.

14
Muchnick released this blasphemous statement to the black press and the statement made

nationwide news.92 However, the 1944 season was underway at that point and a year later

Muchnick raised the waiver issue again.93 This time, Collins wrote a letter back to Muchnick

stating, “… it is beyond my understanding how anyone can insinuate or believe that ‘all

ballplayers regardless of race color or creed, have not been treated in the American Way' so far

as having equal opportunity to play for the Red Sox;” and the letter went on to say that the Red

Sox intended to hold a tryout if any talented black players wished to play for the club.94 Collins

would later regret his words because it was exactly the promise Muchnick needed in order to get

the Red Sox to hold the first ever tryout of African Americans. This promise would later pave the

way for Jackie Robinson’s historic tryout.

Robinson was a much touted and praised prospect at the time. He earned all American

honors in football playing for UCLA and lettered in basketball, track, and baseball; becoming

UCLA’s first four sport letterman.95 Robinson was also praised for his academic achievements.96

Robinson served the country with military distinction until he was ultimately honorably

discharged due to a pre-existing ankle injury.97 During his time in the military, he refused to go

to the back of the bus while stationed in Camp Hood Texas and was revered by the black press at

the time who reported on it.98 By the time the Red Sox were begrudgingly ready to host

Robinson’s tryout, Robinson was more than just a ball player, he was now a celebrity in the

black community.99

92
Id.
93
Id.
94
Id. at 14.
95
Id.
96
Id.
97
Id. at 15.
98
Id.
99
Id. at 14.

15
 It took over a year to arrange the audition of Robinson and two other African American

players at Fenway Park. Boston City Councilman, Isadore Muchnick, demanded a promise from

Eddie Collins to line up the tryout on April 12, 1945, and the three players arrived in Boston the

day before.100 With the upcoming Red Sox season starting on April 17, a tryout for the prospects

was seemingly imperative.101 But when the players showed up at Fenway that day, no tryout took

place.102 Various accounts of the time report the Red Sox shallowly used the death of President

Franklin Roosevelt as the reason for the cancellation of the illusory try out.103 The excuse was

discovered later to be a complete lie as Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia, at 4:45pm.104

News of his death was not public until 5:47pm.105 By the time the news reached the Red Sox, it

was too dark to play in Boston and lights to illuminate the park were not installed until 1947.106

The Red Sox’s stood up Robinson and the other two black players that day and Muchnick was

infuriated.

Mainstream newspapers at the time stayed silent on the Red Sox fake tryout for the

players because white sportswriters dared not to write about black players trying out for a sport

that had none.107 The players stayed in their Boston hotel rooms hoping the Red Sox would offer

them a real try out before the April 16, 1:00pm train, took the Red Sox players to New York for

the first game of the season on the following day.108 The only newspaper that reported on the

fake tryout was the Daily Record, who blasted the Red Sox on the morning of the April 16.109

100
Id. at 11.
101
Id. at 16.
102
Id.
103
Id.
104
Id.
105
Id. at 17.
106
Id.
107
Id. 20.
108
Id. 19.
109
Id. 18.

16
Due to the public pressure from the news story, the Red Sox finally acquiesced to making good

on their promise to hold a tryout.

The tryout meant little more to the Red Sox than merely letting a few black players hit a

couple balls on the grass of the Fenway field for likely the first time ever. The only front office

personnel from the team who watched the players from the stands was Joe Cronin.110 Reports

from that tryout say the players fielded balls and then had a short batting practice.111 One oral

account from a Globe reporter, Clif Keane, said that during the tryout someone yelled, “Get

those niggers off the field.”112 Although the statement was never attributed to anyone it would go

on to stain the Red Sox reputation for decades to come. Joe Cronin was said to be up in the

stands “stone cold” and “had his back turned most of the time.”113 After the tryout was over, the

players returned to the locker rooms and filled out the standard forms the Red Sox gave

prospects who tried out and left the stadium and headed back to their Negro League Teams.114

The only written reports regarding the tryout that had quotes were from the Boston Record where

Cronin was quoted saying, “He’s good and fast – fast as well, Jack Robinson.”115 The second

account was from the Pittsburgh Courier whose author wrote, “"Cronin said the three ballplayers

looked very good but declared he was unable to say whether or not they would be signed by the

Red Sox."116 Cronin’s comments in the press meant as much as his promise earlier in the week

stating he would hold a tryout. Any optimism held by the African American players that day

soon vanished as the Red Sox never contacted them again and furthermore neither did the Red

110
Bryant, supra note 2, at 31.
111
Id.
112
Id. at 32.
113
Id.
114
Id.
115
Id.
116
Id.

17
Sox scout or hold tryouts for blacks for long after the color line was broken by Robinson 2 years

later in 1947.117

In hindsight, what stung most about the Red Sox giving Jackie Robinson the run around

during that Spring of 1945 was not that the team missed out on a great ballplayer during a time

when the franchise was losing; it was that the Red Sox missed out on the opportunity to find

itself on the right side of history. That tryout meant nothing to Red Sox management that Spring,

but the effects of that tryout left a stain on Jackie Robinson’s career and legacy that will never

come out. It wasn’t just that the Red Sox gave those African American players a tryout and

moved on, it was how disingenuous the Red Sox were throughout the process. To the Red Sox,

Jackie Robinson was treated as merely a tool to appease City Councilman Isadore Muchnick and

get the permit they needed to make money on Sundays. The Red Sox swung and missed on their

first chance to be a trendsetter for baseball and major league sports. Robinson, however, would

not be the only African American player the team would reject during the Red Sox’s notorious

tenure as the last team in baseball willing to integrate African Americans.

THE SECOND STRIKE - WILLIE MAYS

Two years after Robinson broke the color line in Baseball for the Dodgers, the rest of the

league was trying to find the next ballplayer in the once forsaken black talent pool. The next

great black player was already in the lap of the Boston Red Sox. His name was Willie Mays and

he exclusively belonged to the Red Sox affiliate team, the Negro League Birmingham Barons.118

In 1949, Joe Cronin was tipped off regarding Mays incredible talent and athleticism who

117
Id.
118
Bryant, supra note 2, at 45.

18
dominated the competition he faced.119 “The single greatest talent I had ever seen” was how

George Digby, a Red Sox scout at the time described Mays.120 The first scout Cronin sent to

Birmingham to take a look at the future hall of fame prospect was greeted by three days of rain

and the scout didn’t bother to see Mays play, instead he said “I’m not going to waste my time

waiting for a bunch of niggers.”121 Later, Boston’s other scout, Digby, who was fascinated with

Mays not just because of his talent, but because Digby had a sense of empathy for “poor kids”

because in his opinion that guaranteed a good attitude.122 Digby reported Mays’ arm was better

than most major leaguers’, he could hit the ball with incredible power for such a young and

skinny kid, and best of all, Mays was full of enthusiasm for the game and everyone who knew

him said he was a sweet young man.123 After getting Cronin on the phone, Digby expressed his

zeal for how great Mays could be on the Red Sox team next to a player like Ted Williams, only

for Cronin to respond flippantly, “We have no use for the boy at this time.”124 Instead of Mays,

the Red Sox signed Piper Davis who was fourteen years Mays senior.125 At least Piper Davis was

the first black prospect signed by the Red Sox to a minor league team, but for the Red Sox it was

all smoke and mirrors, as they released Davis due to “economics.”126 For Yawkey, money was

never an issue and his baseball team, “the millionaires,” never had a hint of financial trouble.

Yawkey was only bankrupt in the economics of common sense. Again, he let another hall

of fame player walk. Mays went on to have an incredibly successful career playing for the New

York Giants.127 He played in a record breaking 24 all-star games, compiled 660 home runs which

119
Id.
120
Id. at 46.
121
Id.
122
David Halberstam, Summer of ’49, 208 (1989).
123
Id.
124
Bryant, supra note 2, at 46.
125
Id. at 47.
126
Id.
127
ESPN, Willie Mays Biography, available at http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/bio/_/id/24790/willie-mays.

19
was third all-time when he retired, and was a first ballot hall of famer with a vote of 94.7% in

1979.128 Mays was one of the greatest players in the history of baseball and among the plethora

of accolades, achievements, and records he collected, the 1999 Sporting News’ 100 Greatest

Baseball Players listed Mays as second all-time.129 Nearly fifty years after the Red Sox botched

signing one of the greatest players of all time due to their mindless bigotry, Mays justifiably

reflected on the team stating, “There’s no telling what I would have been able to do in Boston, to

be honest I really thought I was going to Boston… But for that Yawkey. Everyone knew he was

racist. He didn’t want me.”130

MASSACHUSETTS CHANGING LAW

After the failure of the Red Sox to sign Robinson or Mays and the simultaneous failure of

the laws of Massachusetts’s to provide for a viable remedy at law for them; the laws in

Massachusetts once again began to progress towards civil rights and equal treatment for all.

Unfortunately, this did not occur until after the failed tryout of Robinson. The law was in effect

in Massachusetts during Mays’ tryout, but no claim of action was ever brought. In 1943,

Massachusetts Governor Leverett Saltonstall appointed a committee called the “The Governor’s

Committee for Racial and Religious Understanding,” to help eliminate discrimination.131 This

committee investigated discrimination claims and was later transformed into the Fair

Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).132 This Commission was the first in Massachusetts

to investigate claims involving race and religious discrimination in the public sphere.133 The

128
Id.
129
Id.
130
Bryant, supra note 2, at 46.
131
Fox, supra note 42, at 63.
132
Id.
133
Id.

20
Commission forbade any employer of six or more people from refusing to hire any person, or to

discharge any person from employment, because of race, color, religion, national origin, or

ancestry.134 It further prohibited inquiries into racial or religious matters in job applications and

prohibited labor unions from excluding individuals from full membership on a racial or religious

basis.135 The Commission would investigate if a complaint was filed by a person aggrieved or if

the Attorney General or Commission discovered discrimination at a workplace.136 If the

Commission found probable cause for discrimination and could not settle the matter through

conciliation, a cease and desist order could issue.137 The FEPC would become the Massachusetts

Commission of Discrimination (MCAD) in 1956, and held further authority to protect

discrimination in educational institutions in the state.138 Finally with the proper legislative

direction, Massachusetts had wide authority to eliminate racial discrimination in the

Commonwealth.139

Under this new Massachusetts law, complaints of private discrimination that would

previously fall on deaf ears were finally being heard. Between November 10, 1946, and

December 31, 1964, the MCAD heard a total of 3,895 employment discrimination cases.140

Among these complaints, an astounding 2,860 were conciliated after investigation and 2 were

given final orders.141 Among the dismissed claims, 890 were for lack of probable cause, 55 for

lack of jurisdiction, and 90 were withdrawn.142 The Commissions conciliations usually involved

a hearing where the employer would be asked to sign a written commitment to operate on a

134
Id.
135
Id.
136
Id.
137
Id.
138
Mass Acts 1949, ch. 334, at 220.
139
Id.at 64.
140
Mayhew, supra note 31, at 141.
141
Id.
142
Id.

21
nondiscriminatory basis in the future, or to apologize to the employee, or write a letter of

recommendation for a discharged employee.143 Although the Commission was focused on

conciliation procedures at this time and not money damages, the MCAD’s value cannot be

overstated. The Commission’s effective authority reached far beyond mere hearings. Due to their

presence and ability to resolve conflict, the MCAD can be seen as a successful example of

institutionalizing social value.144 By their mere existence and effective authority, it shifted the

balance of power in the economic sphere from business owners to the Commission regarding

matters of discrimination.145 By doing so, business owners were forced to embrace equal

opportunity and a sense of racial harmony in employment could begin to develop in the

Commonwealth.146

THE THIRD STRIKE – PUMPSIE GREEN

By Spring 1959, the laws in Massachusetts finally allowed for African Americans to be

free from discrimination in employment and coincidentally the Red Sox would finally have a

prospect capable of breaking the color line in Fenway Park. That prospect was Elijah “Pumpsie”

Green, who was invited to Red Sox spring training in 1959.147 His competition was Don Buddin,

a lackluster player who often committed errors at shortstop.148 Green wasn’t the incredible talent

of Mays or Robinson, he was just a guy trying to win a starting job on a mediocre team. Green

also wasn’t a trailblazer saying to a reporter later that Spring, “So far as I’m concerned, I’m no

martyr. No flag carrier. I’m just trying to make the ball club, that’s all. I’m not trying to prove

143
Id. at 148.
144
Id. at 258.
145
Id. at 260.
146
Id.
147
Bryant, supra note 2, at 2.
148
Id. at 3.

22
anything else but that. I’m not even interested in being known as the first negro to make the Red

Sox. I just want to make the Red Sox and all the rest of it can wait.”149 Green didn’t want the

responsibility of being the first black Red Sox player, but he didn’t have a choice. That Spring,

Green packed his bags and headed for Scottsdale, Arizona for training camp.150 Green thought he

was going to be staying with the rest of the team at the luxurious Safari Hotel inside the City,

only to be told the hotel was booked due to “the normal seasonal traffic jam.”151 The truth was

the Safari Hotel didn’t allow blacks to stay at the hotel.152 As a matter of law, the entire City of

Scottsdale didn’t allow blacks within the City limits after dark due to segregation.153 Green’s

daily spring training routine consisted of having to stay at a hotel in Phoenix, seventeen miles

away, and a member of the Red Sox commuted him back and forth every day.154

Many things that Spring were different for the Red Sox including the management. Joe

Cronin moved on to become the president of the American League and Eddie Collins was long

retired and dead.155 However, the Red Sox longstanding attitude of bigotry was alive and well

with old friend of Yawkey, Mike “Pinky” Higgins, continuing as the manager of the team.156 The

same man who once said, “they’ll be no niggers on this ballclub if I have anything to do with it,”

was now in charge. Higgins who would still refer to blacks as “niggers” to reporters, was known

to be a heavy drinker, and rarely made eye contact with Green.157 Green started off the Spring

with a .449 batting average, but he only hit the ball twice in his last nineteen at bats and he lost

149
Id. at 12
150
Id. at 10.
151
Id.
152
Id.
153
Id.
154
Id.
155
Id. at 52.
156
Id.
157
Id. at 10.

23
games with his defense once overthrowing the first baseman by an alleged thirty feet.158 One of

the Red Sox managers, Bucky Harris, even told reporters he would make the team and allowed

him to travel for the final exhibition games in Texas.159 Green was on the verge of history for the

Red Sox. But holding true to his promise to reporters, “Pinky” Higgins, sent Green back to the

minors before the season started.160 When the Red Sox were struggling early in the following

regular season, a columnist named Larry Claflin for the Boston Record America, asked Higgins

about Green who was in the minors hitting above .300 and improved his defense, Higgins

responded by calling Claflin a “nigger lover” and spat tobacco juice on him.161

The move would be the last straw for many observing the Red Sox and Green’s efforts in

spring training to make a losing baseball team. The NAACP and other groups called for an

investigation by the newly formed Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.162 This

was the first time legal action was taken against the Red Sox for discrimination.163 This time the

Red Sox were out of excuses and the MCAD held an open meeting with the Red Sox business

manager and agreed to investigate into the matter of ongoing discrimination by the team.164

About a month after, the club agreed to abide by a nondiscriminatory hiring policy and the case

was closed.165 Justice was also served in the Red Sox internally, when Mike “Pinky” Higgins

was fired seventy-three games into the season and was replaced by Billy Jurges.166

158
Id. at 12.
159
Id.
160
Id. at 52.
161
Id.
162
74 No. 3 Harvard Law Review, The Right to Equal Treatment: Administrative Enforcement of Antidiscrimination
Legislation 587 (1961).
163
Id.
164
Id.
165
Id.
166
Bryant, supra note 2, at 54.

24
 Green would finally make his debut in Chicago for the Red Sox on July 21, 1959 in the

eighth inning of a 2-1 loss as a pinch runner.167 The game meant little to the Red Sox final record

that season, but it meant so much more to the world of baseball and civil rights nationwide.

Fourteen years after Robinson’s failed tryout and ten years after Mays was passed up, the last

enemy of integration in major league baseball was finally defeated. In a private moment after the

game in the clubhouse, Green cried.168 A man who never once wanted to be a trailblazer; soon

understand his role in the larger platform of civil rights when he was greeted by hundreds of fans

at the Boston airport when the team came home from that historic game in Chicago. 169

Green enjoyed his time as a celebrity in the black community. He received phone calls

from many people and organizations including the NAACP.170 The most memorable phone call

he received was from Jackie Robinson who was then retired.171 With Robinson being at the front

end of the integration of African Americans and Green being on the tail end, Robinson reminded

Green of his historic accomplishment.172 Robinson praised him for enduring his journey and told

Green he was a living legend for blacks everywhere.173 Green would also be welcomed on the

field by Red Sox legend Ted Williams. Williams would warm up with Green before every game

and showed the fans that Green and anyone with the same color skin was welcome in Fenway

Park.174

Pumpsie Green also befriended a player from a different sport in the City of Boston, the

then rising Celtic star and future hall of fame legend Bill Russell.175 Both Green and Russell had

167
Id. at 53.
168
Id.
169
Id.
170
Id.
171
Id. at 53.
172
Id.
173
Id. at 54.
174
Id.
175
Id.

25
a lot in common. Both were from the San Francisco Bay area and most importantly were

subjected to racism and discrimination as they attempted to make the major leagues in their

respective sports.176 The pair became close friends and Green had dinner at Russell’s home

often.177 Russell, however, was deeply miserable during his time in Boston and would become

something of a tour guide to the young Green.178 Russell would tell Green stories about the City

and its inflexible racial hierarchy with its segregated neighborhoods.179 Stories about how he

couldn’t find a realtor to sell him a home in one of the wealthy neighborhoods.180 He told Green

how blacks in Boston only lived in Roxbury, a bit of Dorchester, and a little bit of Mattapan.181

He spoke about Beacon Hill, which during the 19th century was so populated by blacks it was

called “nigger hill.”182 Russell would tell Green how his house in the Boston suburb of Reading

was broken into but not one thing was stolen, instead, someone had defecated in his bed.183 He

told Green how the Irish in Boston hated blacks and he called them the “brick throwing

racists.”184 Russell’s fans approached him saying they liked him, not because he was one of the

greatest basketball players ever, but because he was one of the good ones, not like the rest.185

Russell knew that if he was one of the most prominent African Americans in Boston and

miserable, than life for the average black in Boston must have been torturous.186 Russell would

later go on to reflect about his time spent in Boston feeling shunned and isolated saying, “I had

176
Id.
177
Id.
178
Id.
179
Id. at 55.
180
Id.
181
Id.
182
Id.
183
Id.
184
Id. at 58.
185
Id.
186
Id.

26
never been in a city more involved with finding new ways to dismiss, ignore or look down on

other people,”187 and going on further to say Boston was a “flea market of racism.”188

Although Green and Russell shared a close companionship, their personalities were

starkly different. Russell was proud and defiant whereas Green was mild and passive.189 Green

was seen as less of a threat to whites, and accepted racism as an unavoidable part of his life.190

This unavoidable racism took only ten days into Green’s career to manifest itself first hand.191 In

the days of Green’s first season, it was taboo for a black man to stay in the same hotel room as a

white man.192 The Red Sox, who had players sleep in rooms of two, decided to pull up their

second black player, pitcher Earl Wilson. This move was motivated by bigoted necessity, but the

two roomed together and incidentally became close friends.193 Without Cronin and Higgins

around, Green felt like the Red Sox were a different team and for the most part Green loved

playing baseball in the major leagues.194

Green’s life when he wasn’t fielding balls at shortstop, however, was a different story.

Just because Green and Wilson were on the Red Sox, did not mean they didn’t suffer the daily

vicissitudes of being black in America in the late 50’s and early 60’s. One time in Louisiana, the

two were driving slow through a school zone, they were pulled over and were shocked by the

demeanor of the white police officers while they were obeying the law.195 The officers let them

go, but they both thought they could have been shot to death for driving too fast in a school

187
Id. at 55
188
Id. at 56.
189
Id. at 59.
190
Id.
191
Id.
192
Id. at 61.
193
Id.
194
Id. at 60.
195
Id. at 62.

27
zone.196 Another time, Green was driving in Texas and was pulled over by the police.197 The

white officers questioned him and searched his trunk with their hands held steadily on their

guns.198 The officers accused Green of stealing the baseball equipment even when he told them

he played for the Boston Red Sox.199 Green thought to himself that if he made one wrong move

he could have been shot dead.200 Another time during a game in Fenway during 1962, Cuban

player Minnie Monoso for the Chicago White Sox hit what should have been a triple but slowed

up and stopped at second.201 Red Sox Coach Del Baker yelled, “Did you see that? The way he

can run, he should be on third. That nigger’s got to be hurt or something. Niggers usually run

better than that, especially him.”202 Green, being the only black player in the dugout, sat silently

in embarrassment.203 A white teammate told the coach, “hey you can’t talk like that we got

Pumpsie now.”204 The coach didn’t apologize to Green and the team just sat in uncomfortable

silence for the rest of the inning.205

Although Pumpsie Green’s legacy as the first black player to break the color line of the

last team in major league baseball will last forever, his time with the Red Sox was short lived.

The reality was baseball at the time only had room for exceptional black players, and Green

never possessed the same hall of fame caliber talent and ability as other African American

players during his generation. Greens hitting and fielding were only average and after fifty-six

games for the Red Sox in 1962 he was traded to the New York Mets.206 After a handful of

196
Id.
197
Id.
198
Id.
199
Id.
200
Id.
201
Id. at 63.
202
Id.
203
Id.
204
Id.
205
Id.
206
Id.

28
games, he was then sent to the minor league and after fighting a hip injury he was released by the

Mets.207 Green was never the superstar that Robinson or Mays would have been for the Red Sox.

Green never tried to make a comeback to the MLB after packing his bags and heading back to

San Francisco. He said “I never thought about coming back or trying to coach or anything. My

thought was ‘been there, done that.’ That was enough for me.”208

SUMMARY

The Red Sox in the post Pumpsie Green era would still be shrouded in a miasma of

racism that perpetuated even after the color line was broken. But the losing record of equal

opportunity for African Americans in the American workforce at-large would finally turn around

after the color line was broken at Fenway Park. The Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title

VII would prohibit employment discrimination across the country once and for all.209 The Act,

whose subject could comprise its own paper, had the impact that the Massachusetts and earlier

federal law had dreamed of making possible for nearly a century after slavery was abolished by

the Thirteenth Amendment. Through the documentation of direct examples of discrimination, it

is the hope of this paper to have exemplified the hardship and struggles of African Americans in

the United States during a time when equal opportunity in the workforce was entirely abandoned.

The journey to that point in legislative history, however, cannot be lost simply because it has

become only a prequel to today’s conflicts with racial tensions in discrimination law.

Although the experiences of Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Pumpsie Green

happened over fifty years ago, they still have a lasting effect today. The cuts Tom Yawkey and

207
Id.
208
Id. at 64.
209
Hill, supra note 17, at 1.

29
his management inflicted on the Boston Red Sox history leave the franchise with scars that will

never be healed. It is a historical fact that Tom Yawkey, Eddie Collins, Joe Cronin, and Mike

“Pinky” Higgins possessed as unassailable bigotry during the early years of the Red Sox

management. Through their continued efforts to keep blacks off the baseball field at Fenway

Park they found themselves losing games season after season. It is no mystery why the Red Sox

didn’t win a single pennant between 1946 and 1967; it was because they refused to start black

players. It would take nearly a decade after the fiasco of Robinson and Mays for the Red Sox to

finally relent on their anti-black policies. For over a decade the Red Sox stood idle watching the

rest of the league integrate. By the late 50’s the team was mediocre, couldn’t pitch, and could

barely hit at the plate.210 Ted Williams was at the end of his hall of fame career, one of the

greatest hitters of all time, who’s individual talent was wasted due to the Red Sox inability to

sign complimentary talent.211 Dreams of a lineup consisting of Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson,

and Willie Mays, all on the same Red Sox team would have been reality but for the Red Sox and

Tom Yawkey’s racist attitude barring blacks and whites from playing together on the same field.

Under Yawkey’s management the Red Sox never would win a single championship. The

Red Sox had not only become a losing team on the baseball diamond between the 50’s and 60’s

when Yawkey owned the team, but the Red Sox lost the chance for their legacy and reputation to

be different in the history books. The only thing the Red Sox won by the end of the 1950’s and

early 1960’s was the disgraceful title of last team to integrate in major league baseball. Jackie

Robinson in January of 1959, summed up the state of the Boston Red Sox organization when he

spoke to the Chicago Defender in an interview and identified Tom Yawkey directly for his racist

attitude and refusal to sign blacks. Robinson blasted Yawkey saying, “Maybe he would have

210
Id. at 2.
211
National Baseball Hall of Fame, Ted Williams, available at https://baseballhall.org/hof/williams-ted

30
won another pennant or two” if he signed a few African American players over the years.212 And

Jackie Robison was right.

212
Bryant, supra note 2, at 26.

31