The CSI Library screened Say Hey Willie Mays, as one of the events where students observed and celebrated Black History Month on campus.

According to the film, Mays’s story started shortly after that of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, born not too far apart from each other, in the southern states of Georgia (Robinson) and Alabama (Mays). Even with comparable careers, each of their legacies was respectfully paved differently, Mays first team was the Chattanooga Choo-Choos, a Negro League Minor League Team, before joining the Birmingham Black Barons. He helped advance the Black Barons to the 1948 Negro World Series, before being signed to the New York Giants on a $4,000 contract.

After spending his teenage years developing his skills in the Negro Leagues, it was undeniable that Mays was a multi-faceted player who undoubtedly deserved to be in the majors. Mays’s time in the Negro Leagues ended after graduating high school in Alabama, and also spanned through the time Jackie Robinson spent serving in the military, nearly a decade before Mays served in the military in 1953. Three years after Mays’s MLB debut in 1951, he won his first championship and Most Valuable Player Award with the New York Giants after sweeping the Cleveland Indians to win the 1954 World Series.

Dr. Catherine Lavender, an Associate Professor of History at CSI and Director of the Bertha Harris Women’s Center, realizes Mays’s impact, especially while observing the importance of women Black History Month figures like Negro League legend Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball in a major men’s league. Lavender also recognizes the timeliness of the World Wars in correspondence to the migration of Black people to larger cities like New York and San Francisco. The movement of the New York Giants to San Francisco was a key part in Mays’s career, as he would become a new star in a city that had yet to implement desegregation laws.

“The migration of Black Americans into New York before and through the years of the first World War, the Harlem Renaissance, the Roaring Twenties, these eras form this capital city of New York, which is what happened out west through World War Two,” said Lavender.

In San Francisco, Mays was criticized harshly for many things in the social climate of the 1950s especially after replacing the western city’s former star Joe DiMaggio. He was also criticized by many including Jackie Robinson for not taking enough action against social injustice, but Mays was an innovator to his teammates and his city. Off the field, Mays still faced discrimination when trying to buy a house in San Francisco, which ultimately led to a fair housing ordinance in the city.

“I was reading about Mayor Willie Brown crediting Willie Mays for pioneering such a specific issue like housing, and how his impact through baseball ends up making bigger change elsewhere,” said Associate Dean and Chief Librarian Amy Stempler.

Watching this deep dive into Willie Mays, hosted by the Library and the Bertha Harris Women’s Center, shows the impact he had on the world nearly 75 years ago. Playing the game he loved through the many obstacles he faced shows his bravery and courage, and why he is celebrated during Black History Month. Even for those who aren’t baseball fans, the documentary shows the reality of navigating the U.S. in a time of social injustice and inequality, and how Mays’s admirable attitude changed many things off the field as well.

By Kyle Cicero