To celebrate the summer holiday week, WUNC will air a special documentary series examining the rich baseball history of Rickwood Field.
Earlier this month, on June 20, Major League Baseball played a regular season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. But the 114-year-old stadium has a long and complicated history. It hosted everything from segregated baseball, a women’s suffrage event, a Klan rally and eventually, the first integrated sports team in Alabama.
Hosted by Roy Wood Jr. — a former correspondent for The Daily Show and a guest on WUNC's Due South— "Road to Rickwood" features him speaking with historians, civic leaders, former Negro League players and more to learn how Birmingham’s civil rights story played out at America’s oldest ballpark.
Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian, Emmy nominee and hosted the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2023. He’s also a native of Birmingham and a big baseball fan; he even played high school ball at Rickwood Field.
Now, Wood has the opportunity to tell this story of this legendary ballpark with a sense of familiarity, engagement and humor.
Road to Rickwood will air Tuesday, July 2 through Friday, July 5 at 10:00 a.m. It will broadcast in place of Due South.
