A Black little league team that got invited to the 1963 Little League World Series but never got to go because of segregation is finally getting recognition.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In Atlanta, the city council has finally recognized Georgia’s first Black baseball team to be invited to the Little League World Series. And I say finally because they earned that invitation back in 1963, towards the end of the Jim Crow era. And as Julien Virgin with WABE in Atlanta reports, the team never actually got to go.
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JULIEN VIRGIN, BYLINE: At an American Legion post for veterans in Atlanta, 77-year-old Army vet Levi Miller sits with two old friends around a small, dimly lit table, reminiscing on their first love.
LEVI MILLER: Baseball – we can get out in the driveway. We can get a tennis ball during the off season, and get a broom handle, right? And just hit the ball in the driveway.
VIRGIN: About 10 miles away from where they sit is where they spent their childhood in the ’50s and ’60s, in the west side of Atlanta. In 1962, Miller captained the Simpson Road Trojans, a self-organized neighborhood Little League baseball team.
LARRY MORROW SR: They were good kids, man. They weren’t bad. They just needed a little bit of discipline.
VIRGIN: That’s Larry Morrow Sr., who was the team’s then 16-year-old head coach.
MILLER: Larry wasn’t but two years older than we were. And we said, man, ain’t no way in the world Larry can teach us nothing. But boy, we was in for a surprise.
VIRGIN: Miller says the Trojans beat everyone in their path, becoming the first Black team from Georgia to be invited to the Little League World Series in 1963. But their toughest opponent was right at home in the segregated South. Their invitation was rescinded due to a technicality.
MILLER: When we got denied, we knew what racism was ’cause we was hurt. We was hurt.
VIRGIN: Atlanta Little League officials denied the Simpson Road Trojans the chance to attend the World Series because of a dispute over a player’s age. Local Black leaders appealed the decision to no avail. Despite the adversity, this shared disappointment drew the team even closer together, building what they call a league of friends, says Coach Morrow.
MORROW: After we got to be adults, we played softball together for more than 25 years.
VIRGIN: The team evolved until the Atlanta Trojans, sporting bright-yellow and green fitted uniforms. Nine out of the original 16 players are still alive today. Many of them recently stood behind Atlanta City Council member Byron Amos as he proclaimed…
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BYRON AMOS: Do hereby recognize and honor the 1962 Simpson Road Trojans Little League team for their historic achievements.
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VIRGIN: Both team captain and head coach stood side-by-side, grinning ear-to-ear, holding the proclamation like a championship trophy.
MORROW: It means a lot to be recognized because most of us are in our 70s. And, you know, and there’s an old saying about giving flowers while you’re living, and this is – these are flowers for us.
VIRGIN: The Trojans’ journey is now also a part of a book titled “A League Of Friends.” For NPR News, I’m Julien Virgin in Atlanta.
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