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The Journey Of The Black Sports Journalist: Past, Present And Future, Gary Washburn
The Journey Of The Black Sports Journalist: Past, Present And Future, Gary Washburn
College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects
It took nearly 60 years for the mainstream audience to learn and digest the impact of the Black sports journalist on the American sports landscape.
In the Disney-movie “42,” detailing Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Robinson bonded with a journalist named Wendell Smith, who served as a guide, mentor and liaison for the baseball player during his travel journey with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Smith not only covered Robinson’s ground-breaking excursion into a sport that had proudly prohibited and disavowed Blacks from playing Major League Baseball, he became Robinson’s trusted colleague, gaining access to stories and insights …