South of the Color Barrier

from delancyplace.com:

In today's excerpt - one of the great American stories that has been told and told
again, including on these pages, is about when Jackie Robinson was signed by Branch
Rickey and broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947. However, there is almost
always an untold part of this story. In the mid-1940s, the Mexican League, led
by legendary multi-millionaire owner Jorge Pasquel, started aggressively signing
black American baseball players. This put pressure on American team owners to move
on this issue or lose an opportunity for the better results associated with these
players, since Jorge Pasquel's motivation for signing these players was the same
as Branch Rickey's - to win ballgames and increase revenues for his team:
"When the black players started to play in Mexico, they were often followed on the
street by curious Mexicans who had not seen people of color before. 'I saw them
as extraordinary, almost extraterrestrials who came to play here,'recalled baseball
Mexican historian Jaime Cervantes, who used to go to games in the forties with his
father, Leopoldo, who played for the Puebla team in the Mexican League. 'We saw
the black players as gods. We sought their friendship. We wanted them to recognize
us and to talk to us. They were fleeing from racism and sought refuge here. I have
fond memories of when I was a child and saw the black players play.' The African
American players found a familiar sight in Mexico: as in the Negro Leagues, the
fans dressed up to go to the baseball games, considering them as much a social
event as a sporting event. ...
"Jorge realized that the black players had to be treated better than most. They
had to have a nice home, a nice car. That way society [perceives them to have status
and] automatically changes its attitude. ... Pasquel encouraged the players to bring
their families to Mexico. He either gave them housing allowances or provided them
with apartments. Delores Dandridge recalled that Pasquel provided her father, Ray,
with a six-room apartment overlooking Chapultepec Park, the Mexico City equivalent
of a Park Avenue apartment overlooking New York's Central Park. Pasquel provided
a tutor for the children and a maid to do the housework. ...
"[But even in Mexico there were occasional problems.] When Sug Cornelius returned
in 1940, he was denied a room at the hotel where he had stayed during the previous
season in Mexico City. 'I asked the hotel manager why, and he said, 'Well, you know,
we have a lot of tourists come here, and the whites say they don't live in the same
hotel with you in the United States.' I told him, 'If that's the way you want it,
that's okay.' [Pasquel] got me a nice apartment.' ...
"Willie Wells, in an interview in Mexico City with Wendell Smith of the African
American weekly Pittsburgh Courier, said:
" 'I came back to play ball for [the] Veracruz [team] because I have a better future
in Mexico than in the States. Not only do I get more money playing here, but I live
like a king. I am not faced with the racial problem in Mexico. ...
"I mean that we are heroes here, not just ballplayers. I was going to stay in the
States and play for Newark, but I think a ballplayer, or any workingman, should
take advantage of better opportunities. I didn't quit Newark and join some other
team in the States. I quit and left the country.
"I've found freedom and democracy here, something I never found in the United States.
I was branded a Negro in the States and had to act accordingly. Everything I did,
including playing ball, was regulated by my color. Well, here in Mexico I am a man.
I can go as far in baseball as I am capable of going. I can live where I please
and will encounter no restrictions of any kind because of my race.'
"Catcher Bill Cash, who played for the Mexico City Red Devils, shared Wells' views
on Mexico. 'The fans loved us there and treated us like kings,' he said. 'It didn't
matter what your color was. Mexico and Canada were the two places where there was
no racial discrimination. You'd be thirsty in Mexico and see a water fountain and
look above it for the 'White Only' sign and there was none. Water never tasted so
good.' "
Author: John Virtue
Title: South of the Color Barrier
Publisher: McFarland
Date: Copyright 2008 by John Virtue
Pages: 86-90