Lester Rodney
Encyclopedia
Lester Rodney was an American journalist who helped break down the color barrier
in baseball
as sports writer for the Daily Worker
.
, New York City
, the third of four children of Isabel Cotton and Max Rodney. The Rodneys moved from the Bronx to Brooklyn
when Lester was 6, where his lifelong love of the Dodgers
developed. Rodney’s father lost his business, and then the family home, in the 1929 stock market crash that began the Great Depression
, an era in which communism
and other radical social philosophies captured the attention of the intelligentsia. Rodney earned a partial track scholarship to Syracuse University
, but his family could not afford the other half of his tuition so he did not complete his formal education. To supplement the family income, he took odd jobs, including helping his attorney brother-in-law and chauffeuring rich children to school.
and its Sunday edition, the Sunday Worker, the party organ of the Communist Party USA
, or CPUSA. There Rodney was able to combine sports journalism with his developing sense of social justice, to champion social issues, most notably the desegregation of major league baseball
. Many American Jews felt as persecuted as African American
s, and it was not a stretch for a young Jewish intellectual to see the contradiction of the fight against Hitler's bigotry and the continued oppression of black people in the United States. Rodney was given wide discretion in his sportswriting, permitted to criticize baseball, America, and Hitler in order to prove his point that some African American ballplayers were equal to white major leaguers. He leveled much of this criticism at Branch Rickey
, the general manager of his beloved Dodgers.
Rodney served in the South Pacific in World War II
, and it was during his service that Branch Rickey announced the signing of Los Angeles
native and war veteran Jackie Robinson
to a minor league contract. Rodney's paper had touted Robinson’s abilities for nine long years leading up to this event, and Daily Worker editor Mike Gold
wrote an editorial praising Rodney’s efforts as bringing desegregation to fruition. Rodney was one of the few white sportswriters of his time to devote a great deal of space and praise to black athletes. His sports page often carried more stories about Joe Louis
and Kenny Washington
than on those white athletes whose prowess was the subject of the mainstream papers. Rodney's outspoken commentary often publicly pitted him against other sportswriters, but they would often offer information for Rodney to publish that they could not themselves use. Soon after returning from the war, Rodney met the woman who would become his second wife, Clare, a lifelong educator, and they were married on April 21, 1946. Rodney stayed with the Daily Worker until the mid-1950s, keeping on top of racial issues in sports.
's 1956 Secret Speech detailing the crimes of the Joseph Stalin
era, Rodney joined Daily Worker editor John Gates
in an attempt to open the pages of the paper to debate. CPUSA leaders suppressed this staff revolt, and suspended publication of the paper as a daily. After 22 years as the Daily Workers sports writer, Rodney resigned from the CPUSA and the paper in January 1958 to seek a new life in California. The Rodneys moved from New York to Torrance, California
, in 1958, where they lived for 31 years. Rodney continued to work as a journalist, most notably as the Religion editor of the Long-Beach Press Telegram. The Rodneys had two children, Amy and Ray, and later a granddaughter, Jessie. Rodney kept active all his life playing sports, and in his 60s saw success in his senior amateur tennis
career, ranking as the #1 or #2 player in his age group in California until retiring from competition in 1998. In 1990, the Rodneys moved again, this time to Walnut Creek, California
. Clare died in May 2004.
Rodney celebrated his 96th birthday on April 17, 2007 in Walnut Creek, California with his partner, Mary Reynolds Harvey. Rodney died on December 20, 2009.
Baseball color line
The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...
in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
as sports writer for the Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
.
Early life
Rodney was born in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the third of four children of Isabel Cotton and Max Rodney. The Rodneys moved from the Bronx to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
when Lester was 6, where his lifelong love of the Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
developed. Rodney’s father lost his business, and then the family home, in the 1929 stock market crash that began the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, an era in which communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and other radical social philosophies captured the attention of the intelligentsia. Rodney earned a partial track scholarship to Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, but his family could not afford the other half of his tuition so he did not complete his formal education. To supplement the family income, he took odd jobs, including helping his attorney brother-in-law and chauffeuring rich children to school.
Sports writer for the Daily Worker
Rodney's favorite jobs though involved sports, and in 1936 he parlayed his high school background in sportswriting into a job with the Daily WorkerDaily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
and its Sunday edition, the Sunday Worker, the party organ of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, or CPUSA. There Rodney was able to combine sports journalism with his developing sense of social justice, to champion social issues, most notably the desegregation of major league baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. Many American Jews felt as persecuted as African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, and it was not a stretch for a young Jewish intellectual to see the contradiction of the fight against Hitler's bigotry and the continued oppression of black people in the United States. Rodney was given wide discretion in his sportswriting, permitted to criticize baseball, America, and Hitler in order to prove his point that some African American ballplayers were equal to white major leaguers. He leveled much of this criticism at Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...
, the general manager of his beloved Dodgers.
Rodney served in the South Pacific in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and it was during his service that Branch Rickey announced the signing of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
native and war veteran Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
to a minor league contract. Rodney's paper had touted Robinson’s abilities for nine long years leading up to this event, and Daily Worker editor Mike Gold
Mike Gold
Michael "Mike" Gold is the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic, his semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money from 1930 was a bestseller.- Biography :Gold was born Itzok Isaac Granich on April 12, 1894 on the...
wrote an editorial praising Rodney’s efforts as bringing desegregation to fruition. Rodney was one of the few white sportswriters of his time to devote a great deal of space and praise to black athletes. His sports page often carried more stories about Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
and Kenny Washington
Kenny Washington (American football)
Kenneth S. "Kingfish" Washington was a professional football player who was the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League team in the modern era.-UCLA Bruins:...
than on those white athletes whose prowess was the subject of the mainstream papers. Rodney's outspoken commentary often publicly pitted him against other sportswriters, but they would often offer information for Rodney to publish that they could not themselves use. Soon after returning from the war, Rodney met the woman who would become his second wife, Clare, a lifelong educator, and they were married on April 21, 1946. Rodney stayed with the Daily Worker until the mid-1950s, keeping on top of racial issues in sports.
Fresh start in California
Following Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's 1956 Secret Speech detailing the crimes of the Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
era, Rodney joined Daily Worker editor John Gates
John Gates
John "Johnny" Gates, born Solomon Regenstreif was a prominent American Communist journalist, best remembered as one of the individuals spearheading a failed attempt at liberalization of the Communist Party USA in 1957.-Early years:...
in an attempt to open the pages of the paper to debate. CPUSA leaders suppressed this staff revolt, and suspended publication of the paper as a daily. After 22 years as the Daily Workers sports writer, Rodney resigned from the CPUSA and the paper in January 1958 to seek a new life in California. The Rodneys moved from New York to Torrance, California
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
, in 1958, where they lived for 31 years. Rodney continued to work as a journalist, most notably as the Religion editor of the Long-Beach Press Telegram. The Rodneys had two children, Amy and Ray, and later a granddaughter, Jessie. Rodney kept active all his life playing sports, and in his 60s saw success in his senior amateur tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
career, ranking as the #1 or #2 player in his age group in California until retiring from competition in 1998. In 1990, the Rodneys moved again, this time to Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
. Clare died in May 2004.
Rodney celebrated his 96th birthday on April 17, 2007 in Walnut Creek, California with his partner, Mary Reynolds Harvey. Rodney died on December 20, 2009.