PRESS BOX RED: THE STORY OF LESTER RODNEY, THE COMMUNIST WHO HELPED BREAK THE COLOR LINE IN AMERICAN SPORTS

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003. Trade paperback. Very good. [xx], 236p. 1st printing. Signed by author and Rodney on half title page. People's Weekly World book review, November 22-28, 2003, laid in. Biography recounting the Daily Worker sportswriter's career and campaign to end segregation in American sports. Lester Rodney, sports journalist for the Communist newspaper The Daily Worker, has often been overlooked when recounting the story of Jackie Robinson's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1945, thereby integrating the sport. However, Rodney had been working since 1936 to overturn the injustice of segregated ball teams. The timing was right when Rodney wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Worker "pointing out some ways they could improve their sports stuff" because in the 1930s, the Communist Party aimed to appeal to the masses through popular culture, adding among other features two full pages of sports coverage. Rodney covered the sports as any sports journalist would, but with an eye on social conscience while showing "the fun side of sports and the beauty, too." His column for The Daily Worker was one of the paper's most popular. Silber combines thorough research with 30 hours of interviews conducted with Rodney to ensure that much of the book is in Rodney's voice—a critically well-received biography of a hidden hero. Includes bibliography. B&w plates. (8-7/8"x6")