Join us for an author talk with Chronicle Reporter Ted Reinstein about his new book Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier. In April, 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in  return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major  leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947. This 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. It also  reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, and that for a time integrated teams were not that unusual. And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.

This event will be held in the Lynnfield Meeting House. Please register in advance. Thank you to the Friends of the Lynnfield Library for sponsoring this event.

Due to a mandate from the Town of Lynnfield, the Lynnfield Public Library and the Meeting House require that patrons ages 3 and up wear masks during indoor events. Please stay home if you’ve been in close contact with anyone who has tested positive or been diagnosed with COVID 19 in the past 14 days or are feeling ill.