This city official's arrest led to Rickwood Field's first integrated games
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From the 1930s to the 60s, Rickwood Field was one of a few places where Black Alabamians could go without feeling like second-class citizens.
The first integrated Birmingham baron team would play at Rickwood in 1964, featuring names like Bert Campaneris, Tony Larussa and Blue Moon Odom.
That team, however, did not play the first integrated games in Birmingham's history.
Ten years prior, four largely forgotten integrated games were played at "America's Oldest Ballpark" thanks to the arrest of a major public official.
The year is 1951; Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor is found in a hotel room on a Friday night with his secretary.
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Facing four charges, including "joint occupance of a room." Connor was impeached and agreed not to run for office again. As a result, the winds of change blew through the Magic City.
With Connor gone, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth pushed for integration of the Birmingham Police Department. He and others would also push for a repeal of the checkers law, which banned African Americans from playing any kind of game or sport with white people.
In January 1954, the city commission made an unexpected breakthrough. Parts of the checkers law were repealed, allowing whites and blacks alike to play baseball and football on the same field together.
In the papers at the time, it amounted to little more than a footnote, with then-Mayor James Morgan quoted as saying "Birmingham is the only city with such a law, and the law was not needed."
Just three months later, history would be made at Rickwood Field with four integrated games in as many days 鈥� a first for the city.
Among the notable players to be on the field in that four-day stretch, were Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and the "Say Hey Kid" himself, Willie Mays.
Thousands of people showed up to witness a sight they had never seen before, but, unfortunately, integration would be fleeting.
Just two months later, people in Birmingham voted to overturn the city commission's decision, tightening other segregation laws in the process. They also voted to reelect Connor as public safety commissioner.
With Connor in office again, the fight for civil rights would take a major step backward.
Change wouldn't come to Birmingham for another decade, but for a few days in April 1954, color didn't matter at Rickwood Field.
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