Lester Rodney
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Lester Rodney | |
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Born | |
Died | |
Occupation | Journalist |
Lester Rodney (April 17, 1911 – December 20, 2009) was an American journalist who helped break down the color barrier in baseball as sports writer for the Daily Worker.
Early life
Rodney was born in
Sports writer for the Daily Worker
Rodney excelled at jobs that involved his interest in sports, and in 1936 he parlayed his high school background in sportswriting into a job with the
Rodney started to write about sports in a way that was not seen in other newspapers at the time, focusing more on the importance of their social impact than on box scores. He did investigative reporting on the relationship of race and sports. He highlighted the careers of good Negro League baseball players, bragging up their background and history. He was a key factor in the start of the Worker's campaign to integrate baseball in the 1930s.[5] In an interview in Dave Zirin's book What's My Name, Fool? Rodney says after he started reporting on Negro players, he realized the "huge void that no one is talking about. This is America, land of the free, and people with the wrong pigmentation of skin can't play baseball?"[6] Rodney was always looking for more evidence that baseball should be interracial, and asked white players how they felt about integration. They all said they would stand by it, in contrary to what the owners of the baseball teams believed. He leveled much of this criticism at Branch Rickey, the general manager of his beloved Dodgers.[7]
Rodney served in the South Pacific in
Fresh start in California
Following
Rodney was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2005.[12]
Rodney celebrated his 96th birthday on April 17, 2007 in Walnut Creek, California with his partner, Mary Reynolds Harvey. Rodney died on December 20, 2009.[13]
Notes
- ^ Orodenker, Richard (2000). Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 241: American Sportswriters and Writers on Sport. Detroit (Mich.): Gale Group. p. 233.
- ^ Irwin Silber, Press Box Red, p. 21.
- ^ Lamb, Chris (2012-04-01). Conspiracy of Silence. Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press. pp. 93–94.
- ^ Rusinack, Kelly, "Baseball on the Radical Agenda: The Daily and Sunday Worker on Desegregating Major League Baseball," Clemson University, Master's Thesis, 1995, pp. . Nothing was covered in the Daily or Sunday Worker that did not first pass the approval of the Communist International, a/k/a the ComIntern.
- ^ Weinbaum, William (24 Feb 2010). "OTL: Rodney pushed for integration". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 Feb 2024.
- ^ Zirin, Dave (2005). What's My Name, Fool?. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
- ^ Rusinack, Kelly, "Baseball on the Radical Agenda: The Daily and Sunday Worker on Desegregating Major League Baseball," Clemson University, Master's Thesis, 1995; Silber, Press Box Red, pp. 6-15, 31-85.
- ^ Rusinack, "Baseball on the Radical Agenda."
- ^ Rusinack, "Baseball on the Radical Agenda," Silber, Press Box Red, pp. 89-112.
- ^ Rusinack, "Baseball on the Radical Agenda;" Silber, Press Box Red, pp. 143-214.
- ^ Silber, Press Box Red, pp. 215-218.
- ^ "Shrine of the Eternals – Inductees". Baseball Reliquary. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
- ^ Richard Goldstein, "Lester Rodney, Early Voice in Fight Against Racism in Sports, Dies at 98," The New York Times, December 24, 2009, p. B9.[1]
References
- Klein, Robert. "Lester Rodney." Orodenker, Richard, ed. American Sportswriters and Writers on Sport. Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 241. Detroit: The Gale Group, 2001.
- Dorinson, Joseph, and Woramund, Joram, eds. Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports and the American Dream. New York: E.M. Swift, 1998.
- ISBN 1-56639-974-2
- Rusinack, Kelly. Baseball on the Radical Agenda: The Daily and Sunday Worker on the Desegregation of Major League Baseball, 1933-1947. Master's Thesis. Clemson University, 1995.
Zirin, Dave. What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in United States. ReadHowYouWant.com Ltd, 2011.