Baseball Has Done It

“That’s what this book is about . . . how integration has come to baseball and how it can be achieved in every corner of the land.”—Jackie Robinson

Back in print for the first time since its initial publication in 1964, Baseball Has Done It is an oral history of baseball and racial integration as told by its greatest players to the man who broke the color line, Jackie Robinson. This one-of-a-kind classic features rare and candid interviews conducted by Robinson with ballplayers who played and lived through the first generation of racial integration in baseball. A who’s who of baseball legends—Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Alvin Dark, Larry Doby, Carl Erskine, Elston Howard, Monte Irvin, Don Newcombe, Frank Robinson and Bill White—share the spotlight with players from the Negro Leagues, baseball executives like Branch Rickey and Ford Frick and Jackie Robinson himself to create a diverse look at the effects of integration on baseball and society. Much more than a sports book, Baseball Has Done It is an important document of the struggle for civil rights in the United States, one that speaks to the past while looking toward the future, with the belief that if baseball has done it—achieve integration—the rest of society can too. As Jackie Robinson said, “The ballplayers who have spoken in these pages have told the truth. They reveal that total integration is the only cure for the disease of hatred which is afflicting our America!”

This first-ever reprint edition will feature an introduction from the Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee as well as a selection of vintage photographs that were specifically selected for this new edition.