Editing Baseball color line (section)

== Media influencers ==

=== Lester Rodney ===
As a writer for the ''[[Daily Worker]]'', [[Lester Rodney]] utilized his role in the media to help integrate Major League Baseball by pressuring the establishment.<ref name=":2">Silber, Irwin (2003). ''Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports''. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. {{ISBN|1-56639-974-2}}.</ref> By the late 1930s, MLB managers including [[Burleigh Grimes]] had already admitted to sportswriters at the ''Daily Worker'' that black ballplayers were of, "Big League Quality," but no one wanted to put their career in jeopardy by allowing that statement on an official record.<ref name=":2" /> Despite general support of this sentiment from many other managers and players like [[Bill McKechnie]], [[Doc Prothro]], [[Leo Durocher]], [[Ray Blades]], [[Casey Stengel]], [[Pie Traynor]], [[Gabby Hartnett]], [[Ernie Lombardi]], [[Mel Ott]], [[Carl Hubbell]], [[Johnny Vander Meer]], [[Bucky Walters]], [[Al Simmons]], Hans Wagner, [[Paul Waner]], [[Lloyd Waner]], [[Arky Vaughan]], [[Augie Galan]], [[Dizzy Dean]], [[Paul Dean (baseball)|Paul Dean]], and [[Pepper Martin]], all of them went along with the MLB’s official position that baseball would be integrated once the fans were ready.<ref name=":2" /> Rodney rejected this notion, explaining in a ''Daily Worker'' column from July 23, 1939 that the attempt to blame white players and fans was a preposterous excuse which is easily disproven by the large fan turnouts for exhibition games between major-league and Negro League all-star teams.<ref name=":2" />

Although his contributions to the breaking of the color line were downplayed at the time due to his communist ties, fellow sportswriting activists such as [[Wendell Smith (sportswriter)|Wendell Smith]] commended Rodney's efforts at integrating the sport, reportedly writing to Rodney: "I take this opportunity to congratulate you and the ''Daily Worker'' for the way you have joined with us on the current series concerning Negro players in the major leagues, as well as all your past great efforts in this respect...I wish you the best of luck and admire you and your liberal attitude."<ref name=":2" />

=== Paul Robeson ===
A former athlete himself, [[Paul Robeson]] was an American political activist who advocated for desegregation in all aspects of American life, including but not limited to the integration of Major League Baseball.<ref name=":3">Smith, Ronald A. (1979). "The Paul Robeson—Jackie Robinson Saga and a Political Collision". ''Journal of Sport History''. '''6''' (2): 5–27. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] 0094-1700.</ref><ref>Dreier, Peter (2023). "Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson: The Misunderstood Relationship Between These Activist Athletes". ''NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture''. '''32''' (2): 80–96. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.1353/nin.2023.a914848. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] 1534-1844.</ref><ref name=":4">Fetter, Henry D. (2001). "The Party Line and the Color Line: The American Communist Party, the "Daily Worker", and Jackie Robinson". ''Journal of Sport History''. '''28''' (3): 375–402. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] 0094-1700.</ref> Robeson was a part of the December 1943 meeting with MLB Commissioner [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]] to appeal for the breaking of the color line in professional baseball.<ref name=":4" /> He publicly argued that the single greatest burden that the United States carried was its policy of racial discrimination.<ref>Thomas, Damion (2007-02). "Let the games begin: Sport, U.S. race relations and Cold War politics". ''The International Journal of the History of Sport''. '''24''' (2): 157–171. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.1080/09523360601045773. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] 0952-3367</ref>

Despite his staunch support for integration, Robeson faced huge criticism from many of his peers for holding communist sympathies.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> [[Jackie Robinson]] was one large critic of Robeson’s political ties and played a significant role in his exit from the public eye.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />  [[Bill Mardo]], a writer for the ''Daily Worker'' and activist who helped integrate professional baseball, reportedly admonished Robinson for his lack of gratitude towards Robeson's efforts to break the color line and concluded at the time that the Brooklyn Dodger's, "memory is short indeed."<ref name=":4" />