ABSTRACT
Jackie Robinson and the Politics of Restraint In the 1940s, in the wake of the pioneering endeavors of Jesse Owens and Joe Louis, the power of the ballot helped open new opportunities for African American athletes. While voting rights remained tightly restricted in the South, many cities outside the region lay in highly competitive, two-party states, and a solid bloc of black votes could often tip the balance of elections. Blackleaders used this leverage to press for a range of anti-discrimination policies. In 1941, for example, President Franklin Roosevelt responded to African American lobbyingby issuing an executive order that banned discrimination in hiring “because of race, creed, color, or national origins” by the federal government and its war-related contractors. The New York state legislature, its own eye on black votes, passed the Quinn-Ives Act, which banned state discrimination in hiring, in 1942. Subsequently, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia established a special committee to study race relations. Tellingly, the commission’s mandate included an examination of discrimination against African Americans by New York’s major-league baseball clubs.2
