When I tell people where I am from, it usually comes with a bit of an eye roll and a misconception. I was born in Mobile, Alabama but have spent most of my life in Birmingham.
To many nowadays, Alabama is known as the football capital of the South, mainly because of the success of both the University of Alabama and Auburn University in college football.
But the state of Alabama is also known for producing some of the greatest baseball players of all time like Hank Aaron from Mobile and Willie Mays of Birmingham.
Thursday night, the world turned its attention to Birmingham as Major League Baseball held a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants at the country’s oldest baseball ballpark, Rickwood Field.
It was a magical night for many and a dream come true that Birmingham could showcase itself and to the world our city, a city that had garnered a bad reputation, which was well deserved.
Before I moved here as a kid, I had no idea that Birmingham was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement. We weren’t taught that as part of Alabama history back in the day. We learned about the great explorers who passed through my great state, but never got a taste of what life was like for African-Americans in Birmingham not so long ago.
The history of my city is a nasty one, from Bull Connor to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by the KKK, to Martin Luther King Jr. spending time in a Birmingham jail.
Birmingham has an ugly past, including in its baseball history. Despite being integrated by the great Jackie Robinson in 1947, players like Reggie Jackson still had to endure racism during the late 1960s.
Jackson was a 21-year-old who played in Birmingham during that time in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, just a year before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Segregation was still the name of the game here and Jackson felt it.
“I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say ‘The n***** can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they said ‘The n***** can’t stay here,’ ” Jackson said.
“We went to Charlie Finley’s country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word. ‘He can’t come in here.’ Finley marched the whole team out,” Jackson recalled, referencing the Alabama native and Major League Baseball franchise owner Charlie Finley who was from Birmingham.
Jackson said if it wasn’t for his teammates, he’d been in jail.
“Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it, but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody,” Jackson continued. “I would have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight – I’d have gotten killed here.”
“Coming back here is not easy.”
Reggie Jackson shares his emotions of visiting Rickwood Field. pic.twitter.com/dSK7hmCJZd
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 20, 2024
It was tough to listen to Jackson because you could still hear the hurt in his voice as he talked about his time here, but a lesson for many was needed. So many young people, including myself, had no idea the hell he had gone through as a player, and while we should celebrate what happened Thursday night, we shouldn’t brush the past under the carpet either.
What I hope a lot of people got from the game Thursday night is not only a history lesson but to see for themselves the growth of my city.
Since I moved here back in the early 1980s, all of Birmingham’s mayors have been African-American. including the current mayor, Randall Woodfin.
Woodfin, like the previous mayors before him, has tried to change the city for the better and Thursday night went a long way to change the image people have. Mayor Woodfin has revitalized our downtown district, which is now attracting more visitors, including musical acts like Pink, Janet Jackson, Nicki Minaj, and Drake.
Birmingham also hosted the NCAA Tournament’s first and second rounds last year and now this event, which fingers crossed, will become an annual tradition. I hope all Major Leaguers can experience the oldest ballpark in the country while learning about its history and what it means to the game today.
If MLB is smart, they will continue this game and name it the Willie Mays Classic at Rickwood Field. They do the Field of Dreams game in Iowa that draws a lot of attention, why not do this around the celebration of Juneteenth every year, which may attract younger fans, especially those of color?
You can tell that current and former major leaguers were in awe of the history of Rickwood and the players who used to play there like Mays, Aaron, and Jackie Robinson when they were all a part of the Negro Leagues. It wasn’t just the black players either. That game brought generations of people together which is one of the things that made the game Thursday so special.
Even though Rickwood is barely used anymore, I hope it will prompt more baseball fans to venture down to Birmingham and take in the history of the Birmingham Black Barons and the stadium they called home.
This game also allowed Birmingham to shine brightly on the national stage and prove to the rest of the country that even in a place like this, change is possible.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.