On Saturday, April 15, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day to commemorate and honor the day Robinson made his Major League debut, breaking the color barrier in the Major Leagues. Sean J. McLaughlin, Special Collections and Exhibits Director at the University Libraries of Murray State University, is writing a new book about Jackie Robinson and his 1946 season with the AAA Montreal Royals. McLaughlin and Ross discuss the book, the inclusive spirit of Quebec culture, and the legendary ball player.
"I started out as an international relations historian," McLaughlin begins, "and I wrote a book about the Vietnam War. It was about American and French conversations planning for peace in the early 1960s...a book about war and international relations, but it was more about French and English trying to understand each other."
"So, what I'm looking to do with [the Jackie Robinson] book is really explore the fan culture in a majority-French-speaking city and try to explain why those fans in Montreal, a minor league city in 1946, decided to adopt Jackie Robinson as their mascot and really rally around him in ways that are heartwarming on many different levels. When Jackie Robinson was out on the road, there were racial epithets, things thrown at him on the field, but the home cooking was very, very sweet when he was in Montreal."
McLaughlin explores two theories as to why Jackie Robinson became such an integral part of Montreal's identity at a time when racial segregation and discrimination ran rampant. "The first one is that French, French-Canadian, Québécois attitudes about race don't necessarily line up the same as they do for English-speaking Canadians or white Americans."
This is largely due to the jazz boom of the 1920s, McLaughlin explains, which directly resulted from Quebec's refusal to partake in Canada's national prohibition. A short train ride from New York City, Montreal—Quebec's largest city—became a "Vegas of the north before there was a Vegas," McLaughlin says. "It was the best place to gig if you were an American musician—particularly a Black American musician."
"There's this massive boom in jazz clubs," McLaughlin continues. "Montrealers totally embrace this quintessentially American form of music. And you have this small native Black community in Montreal clustered in the port area, the railyards—really low-paid, blue-collar work. So, they're segregated in one part of the city."
"But then you have this influx of Black Americans who are super cool," he says. "They're adding to the culture of the city. The argument I'm going to make in the book is that the jazz boom in the 1920s during prohibition really softened Montrealers up to the idea of rallying around Black America. There was pre-sympathy for Jackie Robinson in the city before he became breaking-the-color-barrier-in-baseball-superhero Jackie Robinson."
The men behind Jackie Robinson's baseball debut were also aware of this cultural phenomenon. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager, knew about Montreal's desegregated attitude based on how jazz musicians talked about their time in Quebec. Additionally, the owner of the Montreal Royals, Hector Racine, was "fully on board. They wanted to be on the right side of history, but they also wanted to stake their claim for something more," McLaughlin says.
"The famous story is that when the Jackie Robinson press conference happened in October 1945, Racine knew the bombshell that's going to drop. He says to all the reporters of Montreal, 'You have to come down to the office at this time on this date. Something big's going to drop.' Rumors circulate: 'We're going to get bumped up to a Major League team; Babe Ruth's going to come manage us for next year.' Then, all of a sudden, they're introduced to this very handsome, multi-sports star from UCLA coming out of the Kansas City Monarchs [of the Negro Leagues]," McLaughlin says. "It's like, 'Oh, that thing you were waiting for? We're going to break the color barrier in professional baseball."
"The management in Montreal was terrific," McLaughlin continues. "They were fully onboard with this. And the fans, from the very beginning—before Jackie Robinson had played a single game in front of them—they were just determined that he was going to be their guy. They were going to help push him up to the next rung of the ladder."
McLaughlin says Robinson's return visits to and way of speaking about Montreal indicate his appreciation for his warm reception. "When you read Jackie Robinson's biography, I Never Had It Made, you read a lot of bitterness about a lot of people. He died young, and there as a lot of unforgiven—justifiable—grudges against many people. But when he talks about Montreal, it's just glowing."
While Jackie Robinson's baseball debut has always been an important part of Montreal history, it wasn't in the foreground of the fan zeitgeist. However, McLaughlin says that after the Montreal Expos left in 2004, the city revisited its Jackie Robinson history and began incorporating it more into daily life with celebrations, memorials, and art installations. "They've really leaned into this part of their identity as baseball fans," McLaughlin says.
When asked why he thought the Montreal Royals' 1946 season was such an important one to discuss, McLaughlin says, "I think a lot about fan culture, and the way that we treat players is a reflection of our own values. I'm a diehard Toronto Bluejays fan, and I would like to think that we have been good on a number of progressive and social issues. Sometimes that meant disciplining certain players that did certain things that didn't really fly in the 21st century."
"So, there's that," he says. "But wouldn't I be tickled pink if Montreal or Nashville didn't get teams in the next round of Major League expansion or relocation. I do hope Major League Baseball gets back to Montreal. I think they deserve it. And I think this is a really special story that's been overlooked."
