This program is presented in partnership with Tewksbury Public Library, the program sponsor. Please register here.

Join author and longtime Chronicle reporter Ted Reinstein for a presentation on his latest book, Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier. The book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. Readers will learn that in 1884 Moses Fleetwood Walker was actually the first black player in professional baseball and, for a time, integrated teams were not that unusual. Then, as segregation In the U.S. hardened and exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, the battle for integration began anew.

Ted Reinstein has been a reporter for Chronicle, WCVB-TV/Boston’s award-winning nightly news magazine since 1997. His other books include New England Notebook and Wicked Pissed.

Sponsored by the Corning Foundation and pesented in collaboration with Libraries Working Towards Social Justice.

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