Sponsored by The Adult School and Westfield Memorial Library

Learn the story of racism and racial discrimination in America told through the lens of  Black baseball. The resilience and pride of African Americans in the face of the horrors of racial injustice and systemic discrimination perpetrated by segregation cannot be understated. Segregation era baseball was a bedrock of the Black community.  It gave birth to a vibrant cultural, political, social, and economic ecosystem that challenged racism.When Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color line, it was a seminal moment in baseball and a turning point in the civil rights movement - paving the way for racial equality and setting the stage for civil rights legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.