lt task. Not only did they have toendure hatred letters, and constant threats, but they also were excluded from daily proceduressuch as eating dinner. For example, in Jackie Robinson's case, "at mealtimeJack ate alonetoother players, eating in public with a black man was an embarrassment." (Rampersad, pg. 238) What's more, is the fact that blacks were excluded from all other "white" places, such asbathrooms, restaurants, and even stores; blacks had their own places to go to, which were setaside specifically for their needs. In all, the white community did everything in their power tokeep African Americans as far away from the "white culture" as possible. On the other hand, thesocial lives of African Americans were not the only thing that was impaired - they also had to dealwith hardships during game time.Abuse went beyond the social realm, and carried itself on the playing field. In fact,opposing teams, and players exhibited many types of abuse, which was focused towards theAfrican American players of certain teams. For instance, when Jackie Robinson would sit on thebench, he would look into the opposing dugout, and see the players "point bats at [him] and makemachine gun - like noises," which signified the opposing players hatred for a Negro player.(Rampersad, pg. 176) Moreover, as Jackie Robinson could recall from his past playing baseball,"the things the Phillies shouted at me from their benches, have been shouted at me form otherbenchesandthey sound jus the same in the Big Leagues as they did in the Minor Leagues."(Rampersad, pg. 173) As you can see, "Jim Crow was in charge even on the playing field. WhenJack went out for the baseball team, he was stopped." The individual that was in charge laterreplied that: "I'll break this team up before I have a nigger on it." (Rampersad, pg. 91) Thus, asyou can see, racism even in baseball was extremely powerful at the time, but it was not the end. Even the umpires donated to the ra...
