BOSTON (WHDH) - Emerson College is hosting a special exhibit that chronicles and commemorates the players who broke baseball’s color barrier, including Jackie Robinson and Pumpsie Green.
“Barrier Breakers: From Jackie to Pumpsie” officially opened Monday morning on Juneteenth, at 118 Boylston Street in Boston.
The free exhibit, which runs through Friday, Aug. 4, features the stories of players who joined Major League Baseball and broke its color barrier over the span of 12 years, ranging from 1947 with Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers to Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, who joined the Boston Red Sox in 1959 and is credited with completing the integration cycle.
For 60 years before the integration of Major League Baseball, players of color were barred from playing in the major leagues, only allowed to play in segregated leagues.
The Breaking Barries exhibit now in Boston is a traveling exhibit curated by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and is being presented as part of a partnership between Emerson, the City of Boston, the Boston Public Library, Red Sox and numerous other community partners.
“For people who don’t know about the Negro Leagues and their contribution to the history of the United States and what heroes they were, this exhibit is very important,” said Milton Wright of the Boston Area Church League.
“When I see a kid with their parent say ‘Gee, I didn’t know that,’ — that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Frank Jordan, an advisor for the Red Sox.
The exhibit will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information on the exhibit and the history on display can be found here.
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