Crossing the Line

From 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, through 1959, when the Boston Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate, more than a hundred African American baseball players crossed the color line and made it to the major leagues. Each of these players is profiled in this comprehensive book, which includes their statistics and capsule biographies, their triumphs and their on- and off-field trials as they integrated the game.

Some of these players became superstars of the game and eventual Hall of Famers - Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Roy Campanella, and Bob Gibson - but most, fine journeymen like Frank Barnes, Willie Kirkland, Billy Bruton, and Harry Simpson, were average players. However, all were pioneers, facing down the enormous difficulties of integrating organized baseball.