Promotional Information

Constitutes one of baseball's and the civil rights movement's great untold stories.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Part 1
1.  White Sportswriters and Minstrel Shows

Part 2
2. The Color Line Is Drawn       
3.  Invisible Men
4. “Agitators” and “Social-Minded Drum Beaters”
(written with Kelly Rusinack) 

Part 3
5. “L’affaire Jake Powell”
6.  Major League Managers and Ballplayers Call for End of Color Line     

Part 4
7.  The Double V Campaign   
8.  “The Great White Father” Speaks
9.  Black Editors Make Their Case for Desegregation 
10. “Get Those Niggers Off the Field”   

Part 5
11.  Robinson Becomes the Chosen One

Part 6
12.  “I Never Want to Take Another Trip Like This One”

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Chris Lamb is chair of the Department of Journalism and Public Relations at Indiana University–Indianapolis. He is the editor, author, or coauthor of eleven books, including Sports Journalism: A History of Glory, Fame, and Technology (Nebraska, 2020), From Jack Johnson to LeBron James: Sports, Media, and the Color Line (Nebraska, 2016), and Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training (Nebraska, 2004).
 
 

 

Reviews

"An invaluable addition to studies about the tragic barring of blacks from Major League Baseball for almost half of the twentieth century... An independent, moving analysis of a crucial era in American race relations" Arnold Ampersand, author of Jackie Robinson: A Biography "Sure, everyone knows about baseball's colour line and the man who crossed it. But no one has ever sifted the soil where that line was drawn, and found as much gold, as Chris Lamb does in Conspiracy of Silence" Gary Smith, writer for Sports Illustrated "Understanding the curious intersection of sports and politics is always a perilous journey. But with Chris Lamb as a guide, it's more than a joy. It's a revelation" Dave Zirin, author of A People's History of Sports in the U.S.