Reggie Jackson returned to Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field on Thursday night.
The MLB hosted its "MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” event, which featured the San Francisco Giants playing the St. Louis Cardinals. In a conversation with Fox Sports during the event, Jackson revealed that returning to the stadium was a challenging experience for him.
"Coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately, I had a manager and had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn’t wish it on anybody," he shared, adding, "I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say 'a n***er can’t eat here.' I would go to a hotel and they would say, 'a n***er can’t stay here.'"
In 1967, Jackson played for the Birmingham A’s at Rickwood Field in the Double-A Southern League before making it to the MLB. He was one of the team’s few Black players.
He was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993 after playing in the majors for 21 seasons and finishing with 563 home runs. He was named the World Series MVP in 1973 and 1977, was a 14-time American League All-Star, won five World Series, and won the American League MVP Award in 1973.
Thursday’s event was both a celebration of the Negro League during the week of Juneteenth and a tribute to Willie Mays, who played for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood in 1948, per CBS Sports. The Giants legend passed away on Tuesday at 93 years old.
