NEWSLETTER
I’m not qualified to offer any thoughtful or insightful introduction to the video you’re about to see, nor is it really necessary. But I did want to take this opportunity to share Reggie Jackson’s raw and honest stories of extreme racism and anger and fear and support and friendship from his playing days.
For those of us who grew up a million metaphorical miles away from anything close to this experience, I think it can be a little too easy to put this sort of thing out of mind, even if you acknowledge its existence and impact. But hearing it straight from Jackson’s mouth, with this level detail and straightforwardness … I don’t know. It just had an extra impact on me today and I felt like sharing that.
Chilling stories of enduring racism from the legendary Reggie Jackson in response to @AROD's question about returning to Rickwood Field.
"I wouldn't wish it on anybody."
Tells how people threatened to burn down the apartment he was staying at.@FOX4 @MLBONFOX pic.twitter.com/3r3A6zOLvV— Jeff Kolb (@JeffKolbFOX4) June 20, 2024
Jackson goes on to talk about the horrible murders committed by the KKK and how certain people helped Reggie stay alive.
Jackson: "I'd of got killed here because I'd have beat someone's ass. You'd have saw me in an Oak tree somewhere."@FOX4 @MLBONFOX pic.twitter.com/FXBK9aTopO— Jeff Kolb (@JeffKolbFOX4) June 20, 2024
“Coming back here is not easy. The racism that I (faced) here when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places that we traveled … fortunately I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
“People said to me today and I spoke on it ‘Do you think you’re a better person, do you think you won, when you played here…’ And I said, you know, I would never want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say ‘The n*gger can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they would say ‘The n*gger can’t stay here.’ We want to Charlie Finley’s country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word, ‘he can’t come in here.’ Finley marched the whole team out. Finally they let me in. He had said ‘We’re gonna go to a diner, and eat hamburgers, we’ll go where we’re wanted.'”
“Fortunately, I had a manager, Johnny McNamara, that if I couldn’t eat in a place, nobody could eat. We’d get food to travel. If I couldn’t stay in a hotel, they’d drive to the next hotel and find a place where I can stay. If it had not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudy, I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out.”
“I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.’
“… In 1963, the Klan murdered four black girls, children … 11, 12, 14 years old at a church here and never got indicted. They were from the Klan. Life Magazine did a story on them like they were being honored. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
“At the same time, had it not been for my white friends, had it not been for my white manager, and for Rudy, Fingers, and Duncan, and Lee Meyers, I wouldn’t have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight someone. I would’ve gotten killed here, because I would have beat someone’s ass and (then) you would’ve saw me in an Oak tree somewhere.”
