Blackout

Read an excerpt "Lamb's detailed and annotated research provides an in-depth examination of an important step in the integration of baseball, a step that, up until now, has not received the coverage it deserves. Of interest both to baseball fans and social historians."Booklist. "Lamb tells what Robinson faced in 1946 in segregated Floridasix weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution."Dermot McEvoy,Publishers Weekly. "[A]n important contribution to American Studies."Choice. "In his richly sourced examination of Robinson's first spring training, Lamb puts readers on the back of a hot Greyhound bus as it makes its way through the Jim Crow South of the mid-1940s. . . . Througout the book Lamb carefully documents who wrote what, analyzing the black press, mainstream dailies, theDaily Worker, a national newspaper for communists, and even southern newspapers. This comprehensiveness in sources is unprecedented in examinations of press coverage of Robinson's life or career, making it a good investment for researchers in the field based on its footnotes alone. The book also deserves credit for turning attention to the black sportswriters who, as the author writes, 'faced their own color line. They were denied press cards, which meant they were prohibited from Major League baseball fields, dugouts, and locker rooms.'"--American Journalism " Lamb does an excellent job of setting this pivotal episode in baseball history in the larger context of race relations of the South, providing a number of graphic examples of violence against blacks in order to emphasize the dangerous world that Robinson and Wright were entering when they arrived in Florida as new members of the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn's main minor league team."--Michael Cocchiarale,Aethlon "Blackoutis the most complete analysis of Robinson's first spring training available as Lamb has probed the press reports to new depths and in the process revealed another facet of the two America's divided along racial lines.Blackoutis also a volume that is essential to any understanding of the events of sixty years ago in Florida and their significance for baseball, for Florida, and for America." --Richard Crepeau,Sports Literature Association In the spring of 1946, following the defeat of Hitler's Germany, America found itself still struggling with the subtler but no less insidious tyrannies of racism and segregation at home. In the midst of it all, Jackie Robinson, a full year away from breaking major league baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was undergoing a harrowing dress rehearsal for integrationhis first spring training as a minor league prospect with the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn's AAA team. InBlackout, Chris Lamb tells what happened during these six weeks in segregated Floridasix weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution. Blackoutchronicles Robinson's tremendous ordeal during that crucial spring traininghow he struggled on the field and off. The restaurants and hotels that welcomed his white teammates were closed to him, and in one city after another he was prohibited from taking the field. Steeping his story in its complex cultural context, Lamb describes Robinson's determination and anxiety, the reaction of the black and white communities to his appearance, and the unique and influential role of the pressmainstream reporting, the alternative black weeklies, and the CommunistDaily Workerin the integration of baseball. Told here in detail for the first time, this story brilliantly enc

Chris Lamb is an associate professor of media studies at the College of Charleston.