Editing Baseball color line (section)

==Resistance by the Boston Red Sox==

The [[Boston Red Sox]] were the last major league team to integrate, holding out until 1959, a few months after the Detroit Tigers.<ref name=Npr2002>{{Cite journal | url = https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/oct/redsox/ | title = The Boston Red Sox and Racism: With New Owners, Team Confronts Legacy of Intolerance | author = Juan Williams | year = 2002 | access-date = June 27, 2008 | journal = Morning Edition | publisher = [[NPR]] | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080507043012/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/oct/redsox/ | archive-date = May 7, 2008 | df = dmy-all}}</ref> This was due to the steadfast resistance provided by team owner [[Tom Yawkey]]. In April 1945, the Red Sox refused to consider signing [[Jackie Robinson]] (and future Boston Braves outfielder [[Sam Jethroe]]) after giving him a brief tryout at [[Fenway Park]].<ref name=Npr2002/> The tryout, however, was a farce chiefly designed to assuage the desegregationist sensibilities of Boston City Councilman [[Isadore H. Y. Muchnick]], who threatened to revoke the team's exemption from Sunday [[blue law]]s.<ref>[[#Simon|Simon]], pp. 46–47.</ref> Even with the stands limited to management, Robinson was subjected to racial epithets.<ref name=Npr2002/> Robinson left the tryout humiliated.<ref name=Bryantp31>[[#Bryant|Bryant]], p. 31.</ref> Robinson would later call Yawkey "one of the most bigoted guys in baseball".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/williams/july_9/the_unsung_impact_of_ted_s_clout+.shtml |title= Ted Williams: A life remembered |publisher= Boston.com |access-date=August 31, 2013}}</ref>

On April 7, 1959, during spring training, Yawkey and [[general manager (baseball)|general manager]] [[Bucky Harris]] were named in a lawsuit charging them with discrimination and the deliberate barring of black players from the Red Sox.<ref>''New York Times'' April 7, 1959</ref> The NAACP issued charges of "following an anti-Negro policy", and the [[Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination]] announced a public hearing on racial bias against the Red Sox.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Friend |first=Harold |title=Pumpsie Green and the Boston Red Sox's Racism |url=https://bleacherreport.com/articles/157150-pumpsie-green-and-red-sox-racism |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=Bleacher Report |language=en}}</ref> Thus, the Red Sox were forced to integrate, becoming the last [[expansion team|pre-expansion]] major-league team to do so when Harris promoted [[Pumpsie Green]] from Boston's AAA [[farm system|farm club]]. On July 21, Green debuted for the team as a [[pinch runner]], and would be joined later that season by [[Earl Wilson (baseball)|Earl Wilson]], the second black player to play for the Red Sox.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRs-CCUZhwAC&q=earl+wilson+second+black+player+for+red+sox&pg=PA162 |title=The Red Sox Encyclopedia |isbn=9781582612447 |access-date=August 31, 2013|last1=Redmount |first1=Robert |date=June 2002 |publisher=Sports Pub }}</ref> In the early to mid 1960s, the team added other players of color to their roster including [[Joe Foy]], [[José Tartabull]], [[George Scott (first baseman)|George Scott]], [[George Smith (second baseman)|George Smith]], [[John Wyatt (baseball)|John Wyatt]], [[Elston Howard]] and [[Reggie Smith]]. The [[1967 Boston Red Sox season|1967 Red Sox]] went on to win the "Impossible Dream" pennant but lost to the [[1967 St. Louis Cardinals season|St. Louis Cardinals]] in seven games in that year's [[1967 World Series|World Series]].

Tom Yawkey died in 1976, and his widow [[Jean Yawkey]] eventually sold the team to [[Haywood Sullivan]] and [[Edward "Buddy" LeRoux]]. As chief executive, Haywood Sullivan found himself in another racism controversy that ended in a courtroom. The [[Elks Club]] of [[Winter Haven, Florida]], the Red Sox [[spring training]] home, did not permit black members or guests. Yet the Red Sox allowed the Elks into their clubhouse to distribute dinner invitations to the team's white players, coaches, and business management. When [[Tommy Harper]], a popular black former player and [[coach (baseball)|coach]] for Boston, then working as a minor league instructor, protested the policy and a story appeared in ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', he was promptly fired. Harper sued the Red Sox for racial discrimination and his complaint was upheld on July 1, 1986.<ref>Bryant, Howard, ''Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston.'' Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.</ref>