Segregation and Spring Training, 1961
Will Grimsley was a New York based sportswriter for The Associated Press for nearly forty years; he covered 35 World Series and at least that many spring trainings.
Before teams opened their camps in 1961, he reported on segregated living arrangement.
Grimsley introduced readers to the woman who housed the Milwaukee Braves.
“Mrs. K. W. Gibson’s boarding house at 211 Ninth Avenue is a modest, spotlessly clean two-story dwelling which stands out in the dilapidated Negro section of Bradenton.
“Mrs. Gibson prides herself on “setting the best table in town.”
“The tiny, gray-haired matron for years has been house mother for Negro members of the Milwaukee Braves baseball team. ‘I’ve treated them like my own sons,’ she said.
“At Mrs. Gibson’s place, the Negro players have basic comfort and ‘eat high on the hog’ as the saying goes. Yet, they sleep two to a room; queue up for use of the two bathrooms and sometime bicker over the choice of a television program on the single set in the living room.”
Hank Aaron said:
“Sometimes the place is so crowded they have two guys sleeping in the hall. You wake up in the morning and rush for the bathroom and if you’re the last one all the hot water is gone.”
Grimsley said of their teammates’ accommodations:
“The white members of the team meanwhile have headquartered in a Bradenton motel. This year they move into a new motel in the center of town — glistening glass and stone, wall-to-wall carpeting, private baths, television sets and a modern central dining area”
“Aaron, Wes Covington and Andre Rodgers have been most outspoken in criticism of Jim Crow treatment.”
Duffy Lewis, traveling secretary of the Braves, expressed shock that Aaron and some of his teammates were not thrilled with the situation:
“Why, we thought they had an ideal setup and we’ve never heard a fuss. That Mrs. Gibson sets the best table I’ve ever seen. I’ve eaten there myself.”
Grimsley conducted “A reporter’s survey” of each team’s spring training quarters with details provided by the teams and/or their spring training hotels. He said hotel managers were, “generally jumpy and gun-shy on the issue but many (were) ready to acknowledge that the problem soon must be met head on — maybe next year.”
Some highlights:
Yankees: “Have trained at St. Petersburg for years. The Soreno, a resort hotel, has politely said ‘no’ to Yankee owner Dan Topping’s request that all players…be housed ‘under one roof.”
Tigers: “Local ordinance in Lakeland, FL forbids four Negro players to stay at club headquarters, New Florida Hotel.
Athletics: General Manager Frank Lane told Grimsley “We are not spearheading any political movements,” when asked why Bob Boyd, the only African-American with the club would not be staying with the rest of the team at the George Washington Hotel in West Palm Beach, FL.
Reds: “Eight Negros on roster to be housed and fed in private homes, not at team headquarters at Floridian Hotel, Tampa. Both club and hotel said they never had difficulty and not rocking the boat.”
Pirates: “Headquarters at Bradford Hotel, Fort Myers, FL. ‘We don’t anticipate any trouble,’ said the hotel’s resident manager, Howard Green. ‘The colored players will get excellent accommodations in private homes.”
Phillies: “Again will stay at Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. General Manager John Quinn wants all players in same hotel, but no immediate prospect.”
Twins: “Five Negro players to be housed in new motel, while headquarters will be Cheery Plaza in Orlando, FL”
Senators: “(T)o train at Pompano Beach, FL. The chamber of commerce is working on housing which will be segregated.”
White Sox: “Bill Veeck, president, is negotiating with Sarasota, FL., civic leaders to have six Negro players…stay with rest of team at Sarasota Terrace. Negroes likely will wind up at motel.”
Orioles: “McAlister Hotel in Miami…says there has been no correspondence on the matter.”
According to Grimsley, the Cubs, Giants, Dodgers, Indians, Angels, and Red Sox all had integrated accommodations — the Dodgers — who housed all players “together at old air base in Vero Beach,” were the only team in Florida with such an arrangement. The other five trained in Arizona and California.
Grimsley concluded:
“Next year or the year later perhaps, but not now — the baseball clubs must abide by the traditions of the people whose land they have invaded for a couple of months of each year.”
Bill Nunn Jr., sports editor of The Pittsburgh Courier, interviewed Aaron a week after the original story:
“’I’ve said it before and I’ll keep repeating that I don’t like the situation the way it now stands,’ Aaron disclosed here. ‘I think it’s wrong for us to have to live apart from the rest of the team.’
“At the same time Aaron went out of his way to emphasize that he didn’t want the numerous Negro friends he has made in Bradenton to be offended by his stand on this matter.
“Aaron was speaking specifically of Mr. and Mrs. K. W. Gibson, the people in whose home he and members of the Braves stay while in Florida.
“’Mrs. Gibson was hurt over all the things she heard concerning our statements about Bradenton. She thought we were being critical of her and her home.’
“’Actually, that wasn’t the case at all. We were trying to get over the point that we didn’t like being segregated against our will. I explained all this to Mrs. Gibson. I told her about the moral issues concerned. I think she’s on our side now.’”
United Press International (UPI) reported the following spring that, “The Braves switched their Bradenton hotel headquarters to nearby Palmetto this spring to permit integration of their athletes.”
UPI said six clubs “still have the integration problem:” the Orioles, Tigers, Athletics, Twins, Senators, and Pirates.
