The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1997 (Jackie Robinson)

This is an anthology of 14 papers that were presented at the Ninth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held in June 1997 and co-sponsored by the State University of New York at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. To mark the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in major league baseball the 1997 Symposium was dedicated to Robinson. These papers focus on Robinson, baseball, and race relations and are divided into three parts: “Before Robinson,” “Robinson and Social Change” and “The Legacy of Robinson.” The preface is by series editor Alvin L. Hall, and an introduction is provided by the editor of the volume, Peter M. Rutkoff.

Editor Peter M. Rutkoff directs the American Studies program and was the National Endowment for the Humanities distinguished teaching professor of history and American studies, 1997–2000, at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
Alvin L. Hall is director of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

Edited by Peter M. Rutkoff. Series Editor Alvin L. Hall
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 285
Bibliographic Info: notes, tables, index
Copyright Date: 2000
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0831-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8157-6
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Cooperstown Symposium Series

Acknowledgments vii
Preface (Alvin Hall) 1
Introduction—Jackie Robinson: Baseball, Brooklyn, and Beyond (Peter Rutkoff) 3
Part 1: Before Robinson
William Clarence Matthews: “The Jackie Robinson of His Day” (Karl Lindholm) 25
A Story in Black and White: Baseball and Racism in 1938 (Chris Lamb) 43
Something to Cheer About: The Negro Leagues at the Dawn of Integration (James E. Overmyer) 59
Jackie Robinson and the American Zeitgeist (William Simons ) 77
Part 2: Robinson and Social Change
Working in the Shadows of Rickey and Robinson: Bill Veeck, Larry Doby and the Advancement of Black Players in Baseball (Peggy Beck) 109
Robinson’s Legacy: Black Women and Negro Baseball (Gai Ingham Berlage) 123
Ten Years After: The Baseball Establishment, Race, and Jackie Robinson (Ron Briley) 137
Nine Principles of Successful Affirmative Action: Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, and the Integration of Baseball Anthony R. Pratkanis and (Marlene E. Turner) 151
Baseball, Cricket, and Social Change: Jackie Robinson and Frank Worrell (Michael Malec and Hillary Beckles) 177
Part 3: The Legacy of Robinson
The Black Knight: A Political Portrait of Jackie Robinson (Steven Wisensale) 189
Jackie Robinson as Media’s Mythological Black Hero (Doug Battema) 199
The Influence of Jackie Robinson on the Serious Baseball Novel (Richard F. Peterson) 215
Jackie Robinson and the National Baseball Hall of Fame (David W. Findlay and Clifford E. Reid ) 227
The Great Experiment Fifty Years Later (Jules Tygiel) 257
Index 271

• “A fine piece of social history…the research and writing are exemplary”—Nine
• “The best papers delivered during the scholarly gathering that marked the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s major league debut”—USA Today Sports Weekly
• “Ha time of tenuous change in the sport”—The SABR Bulletin