Reggie Jackson is a Hall of Fame baseball player who played for 21 seasons from 1967 to 1987. During a pregame television show at an event honoring the Negro Baseball Leagues and Willie Mays1 at the Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson told some powerful truth. He recounted some of the ugly racism he faced when playing for the Birmingham A’s in 1967. He said, “Coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled.” He recounted the bombing of the church in Birmingham by the KKK that killed four Black girls. He talked about being called nigger, and being turned away at restaurants and hotels. He told this history with powerful feeling and clear anger.
He also gave props to the white players on his team who had his back when these incidents occurred. He said that if these white players had not intervened on his behalf, he most likely would have been lynched because he would not have backed down from those racists.
Reggie is known as Mr. October due to his phenomenal play during several World Series, which are played in the month of October. He hit three home runs in one of those games. Mr. October hit another one Thursday night, not with his bat but with his words.