Just in time for opening day of the 2023 season, come learn about the lesser known stories of color barrier breaking players in the early years of Major League Baseball history. Author and local TV reporter Ted Reinstein will be returning to Lunenburg to present this new lecture based on his latest book "Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier."

This book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. It also reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, and that for a time integrated teams were not that unusual. And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.

About the Author Ted Reinstein has been a reporter for “Chronicle,” WCVB-TV/Boston’s award-winning—and America’s longest-running, locally-produced— nightly news magazine since 1997. In addition, he has been a contributor for the station’s political roundtable show and sits on WCVB’s editorial board. He lives just west of Boston with his wife and two daughters. He is also the author of New England Notebook (Globe, 2013) and Wicked Pissed (Globe, 2016).