How The St. Louis Browns Integrated Baseball In The Region

Jackie Robinson famously integrated Major League Baseball, taking the field for the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947. And the American League followed a few months later, when the Cleveland Indians put Larry Doby into the lineup. But right behind Cleveland were the St. Louis Browns. Just 12 days later, the team played its first black player. And two days after that, the Browns became the first club to put two black players into a game when Willard Brown and Hank Thompson took the field. Author Ed Wheatley discusses how fans and teammates reacted to Brown and Thompson — and why their time on the team proved short-lived. He also discussed another former Negro League star who did a stint with the Browns: the one and only Satchel Paige.