Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star Mookie Betts will be among the athletes featured in “After Jackie,” a documentary from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted, Firelight Films and in association with MLB and collaboration with The Jackie Robinson Foundation.
The two-hour special premieres Sunday at 5 p.m. PT on the History channel.
Executive produced by James, Carter, Stanley Nelson and director Andre Gaines, the film tells the story of the second wave of African-American baseball players after Jackie Robinson such as, Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson. The History Channel gave the project the green light.
“As a lifelong fan of baseball, I’m thrilled to be presenting this in-depth documentary on some of the lesser-known legends who followed in Jackie Robinson’s footsteps to push past racial barriers in order to make Major League Baseball more inclusive,” Nelson said in a statement.
“I’m excited to work with Andre Gaines on this project and am grateful to The HISTORY Channel, UNINTERRUPTED, Major League Baseball, and The Jackie Robinson Foundation for making this film possible.”
“After Jackie” will honor and celebrate Black baseball players who followed in Robinson’s footsteps after he broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
The special will additionally feature rare interviews with Betts and CC Sabathia, among other current players. Betts has personally celebrated former players through Black History Month, including Flood.
“Everyone knows about the bravery Jackie Robinson exhibited in April 1947, but they probably don’t know about the tenacious men who followed him that continued to demand the game of baseball reflect the diversity of the world in which we live in,” History Channel executive vice president and head of programming Eli Lehrer said.
“HISTORY is proud to partner again with LeBron and Stanley and with Major League Baseball to create a powerful documentary that showcases the courage, grit and relentless determination of the baseball players that rose up after Jackie to alter the course of history for the better.”
James, Carter, Jamal Henderson and Philip Byron are executive producers for Uninterrupted; and Nelson is the executive producer for Firelight Films. Gaines is executive producer and director of “After Jackie.”
Lehrer and Jim Pasquarella are executive producers for The History Channel, Nick Trotta is the executive producer for Major League Baseball, and Matthew Rissmiller is the co-executive producer for Uninterrupted.
A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights to “After Jackie.”
Robinson marker moved to Negro Leagues Museum
A vandalized Jackie Robinson marker was moved from where he grew up in Georgia to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
The plague went on display in April, when the museum celebrated the 75th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier with the Dodgers. The historical marker, erected in 2001, was damaged by gunfire last year.
It was one of several markers representing the history of African-Americans to be defaced in Georgia.
MLB recently donated $40,000 to the Georgia Historical society, which allowed local leaders to reinstall the plague at its original site. A duplicate marker was also created for the Roddenbery Memorial Library in downtown Cairo.
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