Blackout

The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training

By: Chris Lamb

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

In the spring of 1946, following the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, America found itself still struggling with the subtler but no less insidious tyrannies of racism and segregation at home. In the midst of it all, Jackie Robinson, a full year away from breaking major league baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was undergoing a harrowing dress rehearsal for integration - his first spring training as a minor league prospect with the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s AAA team. In Blackout, Chris Lamb tells what happened during these six weeks in segregated Florida - six weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution.

Blackout chronicles Robinson’s tremendous ordeal during that crucial spring training - how he struggled on the field and off. The restaurants and hotels that welcomed his white teammates were closed to him, and in one city after another he was prohibited from taking the field. Steeping his story in its complex cultural context, Lamb describes Robinson’s determination and anxiety, the reaction of the black and white communities to his appearance, and the unique and influential role of the press in the integration of baseball. Told here in detail for the first time, this story brilliantly encapsulates the larger history of a man, a sport, and a nation on the verge of great and enduring change.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2004 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An important contribution to American Studies." (Choice)

"Lamb does an excellent job of setting this pivotal episode in baseball history in the larger context of race relations of the South...." (Aethlon)

"Belongs in all baseball libraries as well as those on American social history." (Register of the Kentucky Historical Society)

compelling story, well told

Literally 'inside baseball's. A contemporary journalist tells more of the background stories you have likely never heard before. Highly recommend.

Jackie Robinson - the right man at the right time

Peter Lerman does a great job with this important story. The more you learn about Jackie Robinson, the more you will admire him.