12-04-2006, 04:48 PM
First Civil Rights Game set for
Cardinals to play Indians in Memphis as part of celebration
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
Albert Pujols and Travis Hafner will face off in the inaugural Civil Rights Game. (AP)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Major League Baseball will stage its inaugural "Civil Rights Game" this coming March 31, when the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals play the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game at AutoZone Park in Memphis, the home of the National Civil Rights Museum and the city where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The 5:30 p.m. ET game, which will annually precede the opening of the regular season, will be broadcast live on ESPN, and is planned to culminate a day during which baseball will celebrate the nation's civil rights movement.
Baseball has long been considered to have been in the forefront of that movement because the sport was integrated on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That act came nearly a decade before U.S. public schools were integrated and African-Americans were allowed to sit in the fronts of buses in the South or were admitted into what were then all-white universities.
"This game is designed to commemorate the civil rights movement, one of the most critical and important eras of our social history," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. "I am proud of the role that Major League Baseball played in the movement, beginning with Jackie Robinson's entry into the big leagues on April 15, 1947, and very pleased that we have this opportunity to honor the Movement and those who made it happen."
Baseball didn't become fully integrated until 1959, when the Red Sox, the lone remaining team to hold out, signed Pumpsie Green.
King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, which in 1991 was converted into the National Civil Rights Museum. The Museum, which memorializes the Movement, includes a replica of the bus in which Rosa Parks refused to move from her front seat, sparking riots in the South during the 1950s. The second-floor room, where King was staying that fateful night, has been restored to reflect the exact d
Cardinals to play Indians in Memphis as part of celebration
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
Albert Pujols and Travis Hafner will face off in the inaugural Civil Rights Game. (AP)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Major League Baseball will stage its inaugural "Civil Rights Game" this coming March 31, when the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals play the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game at AutoZone Park in Memphis, the home of the National Civil Rights Museum and the city where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The 5:30 p.m. ET game, which will annually precede the opening of the regular season, will be broadcast live on ESPN, and is planned to culminate a day during which baseball will celebrate the nation's civil rights movement.
Baseball has long been considered to have been in the forefront of that movement because the sport was integrated on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That act came nearly a decade before U.S. public schools were integrated and African-Americans were allowed to sit in the fronts of buses in the South or were admitted into what were then all-white universities.
"This game is designed to commemorate the civil rights movement, one of the most critical and important eras of our social history," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. "I am proud of the role that Major League Baseball played in the movement, beginning with Jackie Robinson's entry into the big leagues on April 15, 1947, and very pleased that we have this opportunity to honor the Movement and those who made it happen."
Baseball didn't become fully integrated until 1959, when the Red Sox, the lone remaining team to hold out, signed Pumpsie Green.
King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, which in 1991 was converted into the National Civil Rights Museum. The Museum, which memorializes the Movement, includes a replica of the bus in which Rosa Parks refused to move from her front seat, sparking riots in the South during the 1950s. The second-floor room, where King was staying that fateful night, has been restored to reflect the exact d