How Jackie's mission lives on through namesake complex

How Jackie's mission lives on through namesake complex

April 5th, 2023

Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla. was the site of one of the most culturally and socially significant baseball games ever played. That game just celebrated its 75th birthday.

In 1948, the year after Dodgers legend broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, Dodgers co-owner and general manager Branch Rickey founded Dodgertown, a 220-acre development where all players, regardless of race, could play, eat and live together in preparation for the season.

Finding such a location was of paramount importance for Rickey; he needed to find a secure location where Robinson as well as young catcher Roy Campanella, prospect pitcher Don Newcombe and other Black players could be treated as equals with their white teammates.

This made Dodgertown a “haven of tolerance,” in the words of American historian Jules Tygiel, as Jim Crow laws reigned throughout the South during this time. Beyond the walls of Dodgertown, segregation was the rule in schools, restaurants, hotels, bathrooms, buses, et cetera. All branches of the U.S. military remained officially segregated until July 1948. But months earlier, Dodgertown, which was an abandoned World War II Naval Air Station that the team leased from the city of Vero Beach, became the first sports venue in the South that integrated during the Jim Crow era.

The players slept in the same barracks and ate in the same dining hall. They all shared Dodgertown’s amenities, which, thanks in large part to owner Walter O’Malley, would soon include a swimming pool, a movie theater, a fishing pond, courts for basketball, tennis and shuffleboard as well as a golf course.

And on March 31, 1948, Dodgertown hosted its first Spring Training game, with the Dodgers facing the Montreal Royals, their top Minor League affiliate. That game inside Dodgertown’s ballpark, referred to at the time as “Ebbets Field II,” was played in front of about 6,000 fans, including 1,000 Black patrons. Ultimately, everyone got what they came to see when Robinson homered to open the bottom of the first inning. Brooklyn won, 5-4.

Seating in the ballpark was initially segregated due to a local ordinance that required such separation for public events in which admission was charged, but no one was barred from attending the event. In 1962, Walter’s son, future Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, helped desegregate the stadium, allowing Black spectators to sit anywhere they wanted, use any restroom they wanted and drink from any water fountain they wanted. As the racist stipulations fell, so did the “Whites Only” and “Blacks Only” signs throughout the park.

Dodgertown would serve as the Dodgers’ Spring Training home for the next six decades through 2008. It was designated as a Florida Heritage Landmark in 2014, in recognition of its impact on baseball and American civil rights. Five years later, Dodgertown became the only sports site on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

Major League Baseball took over operating control of Dodgertown from Peter O’Malley on Jan. 2, 2019. Three months later, it was renamed the Jackie Robinson Training Complex, in recognition of the Hall of Famer’s impact on baseball and civil rights.

Today, the complex is buzzing with baseball and softball activity year-round. MLB is intent on making the facility a hub for its amateur baseball and softball development initiatives, with a focus on diversifying the game and providing opportunities for the underserved, especially African Americans.

Here is a list of the camps and tournaments that take place throughout the year on the grounds that Robinson and other baseball luminaries first tread 75 years ago:

You can find a full calendar of events at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex here.