Civil rights leaders give their thoughts on the historic game Major League Baseball teams will play at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field.
For decades, baseball was a neighborhood sport for children and adults, Black and white alike. And for decades, Rickwood hostedThose memories are bitter for some local civil rights activists and foot soldiers, who fought to tear down the segregation that crowded them into one corner of the park.
“Of course there is room for improvement,” Takia Hudson, a social justice activist, said. “But I see unity in our communities because of sports. As they honor the Negro League, they honor humanity…The purpose of the game is to show the advancements that we as human beings have made. We also embrace the hardship that was required for this to be accomplished.”
“I don’t know that we’ve had much conversation with civil rights communities, I think in the future we’d like to include as much of the community in these conversations as possible,” Anthony Williams, interim director of the Negro Southern League Museum, said. Foot soldiers, John Alexander, Terry Collins and William Merriweather III, met at the Civil Rights Activist Committee Headquarters to discuss what could be done to rectify Rickwood Field's controversial history.For decades, baseball weaved its way into every aspect of Birmingham city life.
Merriweather said he hopes the city can right these wrongs by giving free Rickwood tickets to local community members and foot soldiers.At the time, the Birmingham Housing Authority created baseball teams for every neighborhood, for all ages. “The importance of baseball, the significance of it, is changed because of integration,” Collins said.
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