April 15, 2007 will mark the 60th Anniversary of one of the most seminal moments in the history of American sports: Jackie Robinson officially breaking the color line in modern major league baseball...
Now many people will confuse Jackie Robinson as being the first Black man to play organized professional baseball with white folks...Well this isn't the case...Bud Fowler and Moses Fleetwood Walker were the first African Americans to accomplish that feat in the post Civil War 19th Century America...Jackie was the first to cross the line in the modern era...Now many Americans as well as folks around the world praise Jackie Robinson as a trailblazer, humanitarian and hero and rightfully so...
However, in spite of Jackie's personal motives he was still used as a pawn by the White Power Economic Structure...Many people don't realize today that at the time when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson that the Negro Leagues were generating more revenue and sold out games than the so-called Major Leagues...They were selling out Yankee Stadium when the damn Yankees couldn't!!! Both Whites and Blacks were in attendance during those games...Another overlooked fact is the fact that all the Negro League baseball teams were owned by Black people except for the Kansas City Monarchs which was owned by an innovative and forward looking business man from Iowa named J.L. Wilkinson (he was the first person to popularize baseball games at night with the help of lights)...This was the same team that Jackie Robinson played for when he was "discovered" by the Brooklyn Dodgers...Is this just a coincidence that a player on the only white owned team in the Negro Leagues would be used to integrate the predominantly White major leagues...However, there were exceptions to White segregation...American Indians were allowed to play, the great pitcher Chief Bender and versatile Jim Thorpe come to mind...
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