There was a full-page statement in Today's Boston Globe (March 9, 2018, p. A5) from the Reverend Ray Hammond (pastor of the Bethel AME Church and a board member of the Yawkey Foundation) addressing the changing of the name of Yawkey back to Jersey Street "based on the belief that he was a racially divisive figure and that the change is needed to help the team promote and practice the values of diversity and inclusion."
He goes on to say, "The case against Yawkey is that if he did not outright resist bringing black ballplayers to the team in the 1950s he was slow to try to hire them, with the result that the Red Sox were the last team in Major League baseball to integrate. However, the record, much of it conformed by the Globe's own reporting at the time, shows otherwise."
He does on to note that they signed Lorenzo "Piper" Davis to a minor league contract in 1949 and "in 1950, 1952, and 1954, the Red Sox made strong offers to other teams to acquire such star black players as Larry Doby and Charley Neal, and Bill Greason, a promising pitcher, but were rebuffed; and in 1957 the team was about to promote a black pitching prospect, Earl Wilson, to the major league team, only to see him drafted into the military."
There is more about what the Yawkey's have done philanthropically.
One might say that the Yawkey Foundation chose the Reverend Hammond, a black pastor, as the most suitable person to speak up for Yawkey but there are facts that no one else is bringing up to be considered. I have mentioned Piper Davis but I forgot about Earl Wilson and the draft and I don't recall the rumors about Doby, Neal, and Greason.
He goes on to say, "The case against Yawkey is that if he did not outright resist bringing black ballplayers to the team in the 1950s he was slow to try to hire them, with the result that the Red Sox were the last team in Major League baseball to integrate. However, the record, much of it conformed by the Globe's own reporting at the time, shows otherwise."
He does on to note that they signed Lorenzo "Piper" Davis to a minor league contract in 1949 and "in 1950, 1952, and 1954, the Red Sox made strong offers to other teams to acquire such star black players as Larry Doby and Charley Neal, and Bill Greason, a promising pitcher, but were rebuffed; and in 1957 the team was about to promote a black pitching prospect, Earl Wilson, to the major league team, only to see him drafted into the military."
There is more about what the Yawkey's have done philanthropically.
One might say that the Yawkey Foundation chose the Reverend Hammond, a black pastor, as the most suitable person to speak up for Yawkey but there are facts that no one else is bringing up to be considered. I have mentioned Piper Davis but I forgot about Earl Wilson and the draft and I don't recall the rumors about Doby, Neal, and Greason.