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Don’t Fight Back

Broadcast: July 7, 2024 at 4:00 p.m.

Episode #3, from the four-part series: "The Road to Rickwood"

Listen to this episode: Click here.

In 1964, the Birmingham Barons become Alabama's first integrated sports team. This is 17 years after Jackie Robinson integrated the Major Leagues. What took so long?

Today, we hear how baseball helps desegregate America's most segregated city. Roy Wood Jr. takes us back to 1960s Birmingham, when nonviolent protests for racial equality are met with bombings by the Ku Klux Klan. We learn about the business owner who decides to bring baseball back to Birmingham after a two-year hiatus, this time in an integrated environment. And we hear from some of the players on the city's first integrated team about their experiences on field, in the community and on the buses traveling throughout the Deep South.

This episode was written and produced by Alana Schreiber and hosted by Roy Wood Jr.

In "The Road to Rickwood", host Roy Wood Jr. speaks with historians, civic leaders, former Negro League players and more, to learn how Birmingham’s civil rights story played out at America’s oldest ballpark.