Wendell Smith papers
Scope and Contents
The correspondence dates from 1945 to 1949 and includes letters between Smith, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson concerning spring training accommodations for Robinson, the demise of the Negro Leagues, and the support of the Pittsburgh Courier for the integration of major league baseball. Of note among letters between Rickey and Smith are Smith's suggestion of Brooklyn signing Robinson's UCLA teammate Kenny Washington as his second Black player (December 19, 1945), and letters written by Smith in 1948 and 1949 discussing the possibility of using established Negro League teams or new touring teams for training Black players signed by Brooklyn. Also of note are two incoming letters from Robinson. In the first, dated October 31, 1945, Robinson thanks Smith for supporting his candidacy with the Brooklyn organization and questions comments made by Bob Feller in a printed article on Robinson's chances in major league baseball. The second letter, c. 1948, concerns the completion of the book they wrote together.
The newspaper clippings are more comprehensive and date from 1943 through 1961. The vast majority of these clippings are Smith's columns, "The Sports Beat," that ran in the Pittsburgh Courier and, later, the Chicago's American. The columns primarily date from 1946 through 1948 and include detailed accounts of the integration of major league baseball as well as the individual exploits of Black players in the major leagues, minor leagues, and the Negro Leagues. These players and management figures include: Brooklyn Dodgers players Robinson, Johnny Wright, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Cleveland Indians player Larry Doby; Negro League player Satchel Paige; Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey; Brooklyn Dodgers coach Clyde Sukeforth and manager Leo Durocher, and Newark Eagles owner Effa Manley. Many of the articles revolve around the personal experience of Robinson at Montreal in 1946 and with Brooklyn in 1947 through the 1950s. Smith included reprints of positive letters that Robinson received in a column written on April 26, 1947, a report from Montreal on May 11, 1946, the salary that Robinson received in 1947 from his player salary, exhibition baseball, endorsements, his movie contract and other resources, an offer after the 1947 season by the Harlem Globetrotters for Robinson to play with them. Columns and articles of note include coverage of Happy Chandler's speech at the Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh (September 1, 1945), a reprinted editorial from The Sporting News critical about integrating Black players into organized baseball and critical comments directed towards the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America for a sketch done at their annual banquet where they portrayed Robinson as a butler on Rickey's southern plantation (2/23/1946), and the reception to the Dodgers' Black players by various Florida cities (April 6, 1946). Two articles (May 24, 1947 and December 3, 1949) praise Pittsburgh Pirate first baseman, and later Cleveland general manager, Hank Greenberg for his sympathetic support of Robinson as the first Black baseball player in the National and American leagues in the 20th Century.
Articles documenting the history and changing role of Negro League baseball are numerous and include many references to players, owners, and other officials. Items of note include a tribute to Homestead Grays owner Cumberland Posey (April 13, 1946), two articles on Abe and Effa Manley, owners of the Newark Eagles (July 13, 1946 and September 18, 1948, with the latter reflecting upon her decision to leave the ranks of Negro Leagues owners), a 1943 article on Paige's performance in Pittsburgh, an undated article recording Posey's choices for the best Negro League teams between 1913 and 1931, 1948 folding of the Negro National League, coverage of the East-West games between 1946 and 1949. Smith wrote repeatedly of the need to continue to support the Negro Leagues and in an article dated December 16, 1950, wrote that the Negro Leagues should consider moving the focus of their operations towards producing major league talent and operate much like a minor league. Newspaper clippings from 1961 primarily include articles written by Smith (along with responses from other sports writers) describing the continued problems of segregated accommodations at Florida spring training facilities. Also of note are numerous articles on Black athletes in other sports including football, basketball, golf, and boxing including a November 13, 1948 column that tells an account of the first intercollegiate game between two Black schools: Biddle University and Livingstone College in Salisbury North Carolina, 1892.
Dates
- 1934-1961
Conditions Governing Access
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Conditions Governing Use
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum provides use copies of materials to facilitate private study, scholarship, and research. The Museum welcomes you to use materials in our collections that are in the public domain and to make fair use of copyrighted materials as defined by copyright law and with proper citation. Permission to publish materials must be obtained from: Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, 25 Main St., Cooperstown, NY 13326 Phone: 607.547.0330 E-mail: research@baseballhall.org
Biographical sketch
Wendell Smith, 1914-1972, was born and raised in Detroit, where his father worked in Henry Ford's household as a chef. He was the only African American student at Southeastern High School in Detroit. He played on the school's baseball team and was one of the leading pitchers on an American Legion team that featured future Chicago White Sox catcher Mike Tresh. Smith played baseball at West Virginia State College at Charleston, where he also became the sports editor for the school newspaper during his junior year. Upon his graduation in 1937, he accepted a position at the Pittsburgh Courier, at that time the leading African American weekly newspaper in the country. After only one year at the paper, Smith was appointed sports editor. Besides covering the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays, Smith covered the National League Pittsburgh Pirates. He routinely interviewed players and managers from the Pirates and visiting National League teams on their opinion of whether African American ball players could compete with their white counterparts in the American and National leagues. In 1939, Smith polled forty National League players and eight managers with the integration question and found that 75% favored integration, 20% opposed it and 5% had no opinion. Smith, along with Courier publisher Ira Lewis and well known singer Paul Robeson, appeared at a meeting of major league owners to present these findings and to promote the integration of major league baseball. No response was ever made to that presentation.
Late in 1945, Smith and Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey discussed the possibility of signing a Black player. It was Smith who first suggested Jackie Robinson to Rickey. At Smith’s recommendation and after extensive Dodgers scouting and face-to-face meetings, Rickey signed Robinson and assigned him to the Montreal Royals, a triple-A minor league club. Rickey then hired Smith to travel with Robinson throughout the 1946 and 1947 seasons to offer support and counsel.
In 1947 Smith accepted a job with the Chicago Herald-American (which would later change its name to Chicago’s American), becoming one of the first Black sportswriters at a daily newspaper. In 1948 he became one of the first Black members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. In the early 1960s, Smith spearheaded the successful Chicago’s American campaign to integrate Florida spring training facilities. In 1964, Smith accepted a job at WGN, one of Chicago's premier television stations. He worked as a sportscaster and often appeared on WGN’s long-running People to People news program. In later years, Smith claimed his first love was newspaper work and that he became a newscaster because WGN offered to double his salary.
In 1971, Smith was one of ten men selected to be a voting member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Special Committee on the Negro Leagues. He and Sam Lacy were the only two committee members who were not directly involved in baseball as either an owner or player. Both served on the committee in 1971 and 1972.
Extent
0.21 Linear feet (In one legal document box)
0.46 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Wendell Smith papers include correspondence and newspaper columns written by Smith for the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago's American. These papers document Smith's direct and indirect support of the candidacy of Jackie Robinson as the first Black American to play in the National or American League in the 20th Century.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged by material type. If a material type has more than one folder, those folders are arranged chronologically.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For collection care reasons, researchers must use the digitized version or the photocopied version.
Physical Location
Dean O. Cochran, Jr. Manuscript Archives, Aisle 7, Range a, Shelf 1
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift(BL-1997-00571, BL-1997-00572, BL-1997-05302)
Appraisal
No materials were removed during accessioning or processing.
Processing Information
Items were placed in acid-free folders and in a document box.
- Title
- Guide to the Wendell Smith papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Corey Seeman
- Date
- January 1997
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Archives Repository