The failure of major league baseball to integrate long before Jackie Robinson started playing for the Dodgers is somewhat of a mystery to me. People say that the general white population was not ready to see black players with white players. But many white major leaguers barnstormed after the season frequently playing against black ball clubs.
And there were black boxing champions like Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and others who fought and defeated white boxers. There were no white riots when Joe Louis was trouncing white fighter after white fighter. Jesse Owens became a national hero at the '36 Olympics. His teammates were mostly white.
So why the reluctance of baseball owners to hire black ballplayers? I've read where Bill Veeck was planning on introducing black players before WWII, but the war put off his plans. I also read a poll taken in the late thirties that the good majority of white Americans had no problem with integrating the game.
The history of major league baseball sure would have been a lot more interesting if they had integrated decades before.
