Grant told Kennedy what it was like, all right. He told him about hearing his so-called teammates spit racist insults at Black fans who came to watch him play in his native Florida, a state that was also no stranger to lynching Blacks. About having to take directions from his pitching coach, Ted Wilks, who was reputed to throw regularly at the heads of Black batters, and who, in 1947, as a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, had tried to organize a boycott against the Brooklyn Dodgers to avoid playing against race-barrier-breaking Jackie Robinson.

Source: Washington Post August 17, 2021 13:03 UTC