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Breaking Southern baseball's color barrier

A little more than 75 years ago, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball's major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers. But integration in the South was slow going and took a slightly different path. This week, we look at what it took to integrate Southern baseball and how one group in rural North Carolina is ensuring that the next generation of young Black ballplayers get a chance at bat.

Featuring:

  • Brian Patterson, COO of the Buck Leonard Association
  • Chris Holaday, historian and author of Cracks in the Outfield Wall: The History of Baseball Integration in the Carolinas
  • Rose Hunter, Co-founder of the Buck Leonard Association

Special thanks to the Durham Bulls for letting us record gameday audio at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
Links:

  • Find out more about the Buck Leonard Association here.
  • You can find a transcript of the episode here.
Charlie Shelton-Ormond is a podcast producer for WUNC.
Anisa Khalifa is an award-winning podcast producer and host at WUNC. She grew up in a public radio household, and fell in love with podcasts shortly before her friends convinced her to start one with them about Korean dramas. Since joining WUNC in 2021, Anisa has produced Me and My Muslim Friends, CREEP, Tested and Dating While Gray, and is the host of WUNC's weekly podcast The Broadside.
Jerad Walker is WUNC’s editor of narrative audio and podcasts. He joined the station in 2022 after nearly a decade at Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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