Peaches and Tigers and Indians: Press Coverage of the Integration of the ‘Sally League’
Primary Faculty Mentor’s Name
Rick Kenney
Proposal Track
Student
Session Format
Poster
Abstract
In 1955, the Macon Peaches baseball team signed its first Black players, Samuel Drake and Ernest Johnson. The media spotlight shone on Drake after a “spiking” incident that was thought to be racially motivated. Using those stories as a point of entry into a broader study, we examined the coverage of Southern baseball integration in three Georgia papers to learn how sports writers of the time dealt with race. The research process involved contextualizing and analyzing old newspaper articles from that specific time period, and interviewing individuals familiar with the topic or those who were directly involved, such as Ernest Johnson.
Examining more than 200 articles in four weeks, we came to some conclusions about the journalists involved in that coverage, which ranged from seeming indifference to passionate crusading for the “Negro” ballplayers’ rights and well-being. We noted language choices that reflected the times, but also journalists’ less justifiable choices in occasionally and haphazardly pointing out the race of the Black players—using that term as an identifier—while nearly never specifying the race of White players. The information we gathered revealed that Georgia’s sports journalists were mostly objective with their reports, following journalism’s progressive 20th-century paradigm of neutrality, even while some Southern newspaper editors still supported segregation. Macon News sports editor Wallace Reid went further by criticizing the acts of racism he witnessed and by interviewing Drake about his adjustment into the minor leagues. By interviewing key sources still alive today and analyzing sports columns such as Reid’s, we learned how the Georgia press treated integration of minor-league baseball—and how Black ballplayers endured the Jim Crow era.
We found that the first Georgia minor-league team to integrate the South Atlantic (“Sally”) League was the 1953 Savannah Indians, who signed Albert Isreal and city native Junior Reedy. Their first game was played against the Jacksonville Braves, with three other Black players, including Henry Aaron. The Savannah Morning News reported that 5,508 spectators gathered to witness history, among them 2,554 Black fans seated in their own, segregated section. Following 1953 the Augusta Rams integrated, signing Leonard Hunt. The Augusta Chronicle mentioned Hunt’s development throughout the ‘54 season and remained neutral on race. Hunt was successful enough as a player that an ad in the newspaper promoted his appearance on a local sports radio show. Black and White fans turned out to see the Rams and to see Hunt, but there, too, the bleachers were segregated. We also found that The Macon News addressed the racial tensions of integrating the hometown Peaches in 1955. Sports editor Wallace Reid called the spiking of Sam Drake by Augusta’s Keith Jones, a White player, “vicious” and “unnecessary.” Reid even invited Drake into the newsroom to give his perspective on the play. In that first month, Drake had already grown accustomed to being a target of players opposed to integration. In a follow-up column about sportsmanship, Reid wrote that he was “awfully disturbed about [the spiking].”
Our research is in progress toward a goal of two separate academic journal articles: one focused on an important part of journalism history in Georgia during minor-league baseball’s integration and the other on the concurrent civil rights struggle in the state. We are also writing detailed chapters on those topics for a proposed book that would cover baseball integration across the South.
Location
Concourse/Atrium
Presentation Year
2014
Start Date
11-15-2014 9:40 AM
End Date
11-15-2014 10:55 AM
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Trawick, Ashley and Williams, Jordan, "Peaches and Tigers and Indians: Press Coverage of the Integration of the ‘Sally League’" (2014). Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (2014-2015). 51.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gurc/2014/2014/51
Peaches and Tigers and Indians: Press Coverage of the Integration of the ‘Sally League’
Concourse/Atrium
In 1955, the Macon Peaches baseball team signed its first Black players, Samuel Drake and Ernest Johnson. The media spotlight shone on Drake after a “spiking” incident that was thought to be racially motivated. Using those stories as a point of entry into a broader study, we examined the coverage of Southern baseball integration in three Georgia papers to learn how sports writers of the time dealt with race. The research process involved contextualizing and analyzing old newspaper articles from that specific time period, and interviewing individuals familiar with the topic or those who were directly involved, such as Ernest Johnson.
Examining more than 200 articles in four weeks, we came to some conclusions about the journalists involved in that coverage, which ranged from seeming indifference to passionate crusading for the “Negro” ballplayers’ rights and well-being. We noted language choices that reflected the times, but also journalists’ less justifiable choices in occasionally and haphazardly pointing out the race of the Black players—using that term as an identifier—while nearly never specifying the race of White players. The information we gathered revealed that Georgia’s sports journalists were mostly objective with their reports, following journalism’s progressive 20th-century paradigm of neutrality, even while some Southern newspaper editors still supported segregation. Macon News sports editor Wallace Reid went further by criticizing the acts of racism he witnessed and by interviewing Drake about his adjustment into the minor leagues. By interviewing key sources still alive today and analyzing sports columns such as Reid’s, we learned how the Georgia press treated integration of minor-league baseball—and how Black ballplayers endured the Jim Crow era.
We found that the first Georgia minor-league team to integrate the South Atlantic (“Sally”) League was the 1953 Savannah Indians, who signed Albert Isreal and city native Junior Reedy. Their first game was played against the Jacksonville Braves, with three other Black players, including Henry Aaron. The Savannah Morning News reported that 5,508 spectators gathered to witness history, among them 2,554 Black fans seated in their own, segregated section. Following 1953 the Augusta Rams integrated, signing Leonard Hunt. The Augusta Chronicle mentioned Hunt’s development throughout the ‘54 season and remained neutral on race. Hunt was successful enough as a player that an ad in the newspaper promoted his appearance on a local sports radio show. Black and White fans turned out to see the Rams and to see Hunt, but there, too, the bleachers were segregated. We also found that The Macon News addressed the racial tensions of integrating the hometown Peaches in 1955. Sports editor Wallace Reid called the spiking of Sam Drake by Augusta’s Keith Jones, a White player, “vicious” and “unnecessary.” Reid even invited Drake into the newsroom to give his perspective on the play. In that first month, Drake had already grown accustomed to being a target of players opposed to integration. In a follow-up column about sportsmanship, Reid wrote that he was “awfully disturbed about [the spiking].”
Our research is in progress toward a goal of two separate academic journal articles: one focused on an important part of journalism history in Georgia during minor-league baseball’s integration and the other on the concurrent civil rights struggle in the state. We are also writing detailed chapters on those topics for a proposed book that would cover baseball integration across the South.
