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Baseball legend and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson returned to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., this week and recounted the horrors of racial abuse he was forced to endure there during his time in the leagues.
Jackson, 78, was just 21 years old when he joined the Birmingham A's as one of a few Black players on the minor league team and at the height of violent racial strife in the American South.
“Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it, but I wouldn't wish it on anybody,” Jackson said on the Fox Sports panel for the Negro Leagues tribute game on Thursday.
Led by Bull Connor, the notorious city commissioner of Birmingham, racial tensions were at a fever pitch, marking a peak with the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which claimed the lives of four young Black girls.
Jackson credited having white friends and allies on his side to stick up for him and keep him from doing anything that might have jeopardized his career or his life in the deeply segregated era.
October” for his ability to overperform in the postseason, would eventually play for 21 seasons in the majors, taking home five World Series wins.
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