Reggie Jackson recalls racism he faced in Alabama: 'Wouldn't wish it on anybody'

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson says he had mixed emotions going back to Birmingham, Alabama, where Major League Baseball put on a showcase Thursday night highlighting the accomplishments of players from the Negro Leagues.

The game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field was a backdrop for the emotions felt by players who either played in Birmingham during the throes of Jim Crow and the Negro League players who never got to play in the majors.

Jackson, who played in Birmingham, spoke of the racism he endured with the Athletics' Double-A team in 1967 before he was called up to the big leagues later that year. He credits Birmingham manager John McNamara for protecting his players.

“Coming back here is not easy. The racism that I (faced) here when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places that we traveled," Jackson said on the FOX broadcast. "Fortunately, I had a manager, and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

“People said to me today and I spoke on it ‘Do you think you’re a better person, do you think you won, when you played here…’ And I said, you know, I would never want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say ‘The (N-word) can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they would say ‘The (N-word) can’t stay here.’ We want to Charlie Finley’s country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word, ‘he can’t come in here.’ Finley marched the whole team out. Finally, they let me in. He had said ‘We’re gonna go to a diner, and eat hamburgers, we’ll go where we’re wanted.'”

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Jackson's poignant words hit home when he described traveling on the road and says his white teammates helped him out by giving him a place to stay when there was no other place to go.

"If I couldn’t stay in a hotel, they’d drive to the next hotel and find a place where I can stay. If it had not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudi, I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out.”

“I wouldn’t wish it on anybody," Jackson said.