Quote:
Originally Posted by Amazin69
It's one thing for Jackie Robinson to break a barrier that prevented thousands of talented athletes from plying their talents. It's another thing for White to be a token hire for a position that was largely ceremonial by that point and which would be eliminated shortly after he left. All "firsts" are not equal, IMO.
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At the age of 19, the Giants assigned White to the Danville Leafs where he became the second black player in the Carolina League. And the only black player in the Carolina League in 1953. Jackie Robinson playing in Brooklyn and Montreal in 1947 did not miraculously end segregated baseball. Guys like White and Dick Allen and Henry Aaron were not protected by a major league front office playing north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Because down there, when the first guy left the league, it was essentially segregated again. So White was pushing the rock up the hill all over again. There was no end of firsts for those guys.