Part of the Groton Center Speaker Series, this event is being held at the Groton Center.

Ted Reinstein, a reporter for WCVB’s nightly news magazine, “Chronicle,” has written a new book, Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier. In April of 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947. This book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. 

Presente in partnership with the Groton Center, the Groton Council on Aging, and Rivercourt Residences.