Baseball History Course

 I will teach an online course for the spring session of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Kansas. The course, "Dawning of a New Day: The 1950's Racial Integration of Major League Baseball", will be on February 11, 18, & 25; 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm. For registration information, click on the “Available Sessions” link below or call 913 - 897 – 8530.

(L to R) Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Hank Thompson

Here is a course description:  On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first African American to play Major League baseball in the 20th Century. He erased the racial barrier, called the "invisible color line" that had kept African American and dark-skinned Latinos out due to racial discrimination since the late 1880s. However, by 1950 only three of the 16 Major League clubs had African American or dark-skinned Latinos on the roster. This course will tell story of the slow, yet steady pace of racial integration in professional baseball during the 1950s. It will cover from the beginning of the decade to the last team to integrate in 1959, the Boston Red Sox; all with the growing civil rights movement in the United States as the backdrop. 

(L to R) Ernie Banks and Gene Baker

Available sessions

February 11-25, 2021, Zoom Facilitated Sessions (Online, WEB)