Racism and baseball cards

[darkhorse9]

This isn't looking to start a firestorm, but an interesting question was brought up to me

In the early post war card years (say 1948-1950) integrated baseball was still a touchy subject. It's possible many collectors at that time might have refused to keep cards of certain players. Could that have had an impact on the survivor numbers of those player's cards?

[Snapolit1]

I guess that possible. No one could ever confirm.

[Jay Wolt]

Here's a blatant racist card made by a card company (Gad in 1963)

[Chris Counts]

I was told by an authority on the topic that cards of African-American players in the 1949 and 1950 Remar Bread sets were tougher to find because some distributors refused carry them.

[oaks1912]

Chris,
Absolutely correct. The Remars were distributed one player per week, free of charge, in most East Bay Area (Oakland) markets. However there are period collectors that lived in upper middle class areas (Kensington, Berkeley Hills, Piedmont for example) that do not remember seeing any cards of the black players being distributed at their local markets.

In diverse, middle class areas, such as the Berkeley flatlands, Richmond and East Oakland, all of the players were distributed at the local markets. I don't think the issue was with Remar Bakery, as owner Peter Pedersen sponsored around 100 youth baseball teams in and around Oakland beginning in the 1930's as part of the Remar Baseball League. The problem was likely with a few individual grocery store owners that either disagreed with integrating baseball, or that some of their customers may have been offended.

Three of the cards pictured were definitely tougher to acquire when I first started to build Remar sets 50 years ago. (Woods was the toughest for me to initially acquire) The Wilson card was likely printed in larger quantities due to his popularity with fans, and despite the absence from some retail markets (maybe 5-10%), other markets were likely given larger quantities, and the kids could grab as many as they wanted. Wilson, the last .400 hitter in the Negro Leagues also went on to become the PCL batting champ in '49 with a .348 average.

Mark

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

I was told by an authority on the topic that cards of African-American players in the 1949 and 1950 Remar Bread sets were tougher to find because some distributors refused carry them.

[mrreality68]

And it is still effected today as many collectors will not buy cards of Cap Aanson because of his history of Racism

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Jay Wolt

Here's a blatant racist card made by a card company (Gad in 1963)

A lovely Pele rookie.

[Exhibitman]

Counterpoint:

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Counterpoint:

Nice Adam, I expect this thread will degrade quickly. Can someone please post a card of Mr. Rickey.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by Jay Wolt

Here's a blatant racist card made by a card company (Gad in 1963)

THIS is beyond words, especially for a product made in Minnesota.

[mortimer brewster]

In the late 1960s baseball digest magazine when profiling Major League prospects would routinely include the players race.

[jason.1969]

Some racist imagery on the Mungo card’s cartoon.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

This isn't looking to start a firestorm, but an interesting question was brought up to me

In the early post war card years (say 1948-1950) integrated baseball was still a touchy subject. It's possible many collectors at that time might have refused to keep cards of certain players. Could that have had an impact on the survivor numbers of those player's cards?

Back in the day, set collecting was something a lot of the kids did. So, even if the racist ones pulled black players from the packs, they still had to keep them, right ?? Even the doubles of black players were probably kept (so they could be traded away for the players you needed to complete the set!)

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Back in the day, set collecting was something a lot of the kids did. So, even if the racist ones pulled black players from the packs, they still had to keep them, right ?? Even the doubles of black players were probably kept (so they could be traded away for the players you needed to complete the set!)

Indeed. I'm actually prejudiced against players without caps but I still keep their cards in my collection with the others.

Originally Posted by Mungo Hungo

To my knowledge, in 1950, the word 'Negro' was not offensive in any sense whatsoever. That didn't come until much later.

While the word may be unfashionable these days, it's still very proper and must not therefore be considered offensive. Ask the distinguished gentlemen behind the United Negro College Fund.

[Bpm0014]

If you looked at the top 50 or so cards that are discussed ad infinituim on this board you would have a difficult time imagining that African-Americans have been in MLB since 1947 or that they are any good at the sport. Just sayin.

Stop it Karine Jean-Pierre. Fake news. Mays and Jackie are arguably as popular, to collect, now as Mantle and Ruth. Aaron and Jeter are up there as well.

[Republicaninmass]

1911 t9 Turkey red Boxers were ordered by the customer. Are there any lower pops among the players?