The Desegregation of Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Black Baseball Fans’ Use of the National Pastime to Fight White Supremacy

This article examines the desegregation of Major League Baseball (MLB) from a new angle. Much has been written about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier on the field in 1947, but little is known about fans breaking similar barriers in the stands. From 1920 to 1953, Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis was home to two MLB teams, and, for most of that time, Black fans were not permitted in the grandstands. In 1944, the two teams dropped their segregated seating policy due to decades of activism by Black fans, the influence of World War II, and the efforts of a city-sponsored interracial committee formed to prevent urban unrest. Activist fans cared about desegregating Sportsman’s Park because sitting in the grandstand would allow them to demonstrate their middle-class status, which, through the politics of respectability, they hoped would further their efforts to gain access to civil rights in other arenas.

Tannenbaum, Seth S. “The Desegregation of Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Black Baseball Fans’ Use of the National Pastime to Fight White Supremacy.” The Journal of African American History 106, no. 2 (March 1, 2021): 220–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/713676.