Birmingham, Alabama was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the American Civil Rights Movement. But in order to understand the struggle, you don’t have to look any further than Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball stadium in the country. Over more than 113 years, it’s hosted Negro League baseball, a women’s suffrage event, a Klan rally, and eventually, the first integrated sports team in Alabama.
On June 20, Major League Baseball will host a regular season game at Rickwood Field as a tribute to the Negro Leagues. Leading up to that, host Roy Wood Jr. returns to Birmingham, his hometown, to interview community members, historians, civic leaders, and most importantly, the players who took the field at Rickwood before and after baseball's color line was crossed.
In the first episode, we look at how baseball and Birmingham are linked from the beginning. And while baseball uplifts both the white and Black communities, it also enforces the principle that rules Alabama: segregation.
Listen to the full series at roadtorickwood.org.
This episode was written and produced by Ben Dickstein and hosted by Roy Wood Jr.
Our executive producer is Alana Schreiber and our senior producer is Ben Dickstein. Our producers are Jonah Buchanan and AL.com’s Cody D Short. Mixing and sound design by Joaquin Cotler and story editing by Ryan Vasquez. Artwork by Xavier Murillo. Original music composition by Squeak E. Clean Studios. Voice tracking by Alt Mix Studio.
Special thanks to Paul Maassen, The Friends of Rickwood Field, Birmingham Public Library archives, AL.com and WBHM.
For more stories on Rickwood Field, check out AL.com.
This podcast is produced by WWNO and WRKF. Distributed by The NPR network in association with Major League Baseball.
