This book examines Memphis’s symbolic meaning and value as a Negro leagues baseball city during Jim Crow. It locates the main intersections between black professional baseball and the South in the four decades that spanned the modern Negro leagues era and analyzes the racial dynamics in the city through the lens of the Memphis Red Sox, a black-owned and operated organization that stood as a pillar of success. Baseball also provides a way to examine the racial inequalities and issues that pervaded the city in those years. A black-owned stadium served as a forum for political assertion and an arena for real political struggle for blacks in Memphis.

Keith B. Wood teaches history at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee.

Keith B. Wood
Foreword by Leslie Heaphy
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 233
Bibliographic Info: 33 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9376-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5227-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments viii
Foreword by Leslie Heaphy 1
Introduction 3
1. Early Professional Blackball in Memphis 11
2. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”—Martin Stadium at Lewis Park 19
3. Black Owned and Operated 49
4. The 1938 Championship Season 79
5. Boss Crump Ejects J.B. Martin 104
6. The Boys of Summer 119
7. Barnstorming 150
8. Winterball 163
9. The Final Outs 171
Epilogue 190
Chapter Notes 195
Bibliography 217
Index 221