The Desegregation of Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis:
Black Baseball Fans’ Use of the National Pastime to Fight White
Supremacy
From 1920 to 1953,
Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis was home to two MLB teams and for most of that
time, Black fans were not permitted in the grandstands, the best seats in
the park and the ones closest to the action. In 1944, the two teams dropped
their segregated seating policy due to decades of activism by Black fans,
the influence of World War II, and the efforts of a city-sponsored
interracial committee formed to prevent urban unrest.
