1917 Ty Cobb letter advise

[packs]

I don't know if I would really call Cobb a racist though. After reading about his scholarship fund (which is still awarding scholarships today) and about how he bought up large plots of land in Georgia specifically to build cheap housing for minorities, I find it hard to believe he hated minorities.

Here's Cobb's response to a reporter asking him about Jackie Robinson in 1952:


"Certainly it is O.K. for them to play," he said, "I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man, in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life.”