New York Yankees History: Jake Powell’s Racist Interview

Back in 1938, the baseball world was a completely different place. While segregation existed, the racism in baseball was hidden away, at least until New York Yankees outfielder Jake Powell exposed that hidden side during a radio interview.

While baseball was still a decade away from integration, the rampant racism of the early part of Major League Baseball was seemingly not there. Instead, it was hidden away, disguised by the concern that bringing black players to the Majors would ruin the Negro Leagues, depriving people of that entertainment. It sounded good in theory, but in reality, it was a way to keep the separate but equal status quo in place.

That is, the racism in baseball was hidden away, until it was brought back into the spotlight by a backup outfielder on the New York Yankees named Jake Powell. When, on this day in 1938, he was asked in a postgame radio interview on WGN what he did in the offseason to keep in shape, Powell responded that he worked as a police officer in Dayton and that he “beat {blacks} over the head with my blackjack.”

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That line had severe consequences for Powell. Not only was it discovered that he was not a police officer, and had only applied to the position, but he earned the wrath of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who suspended Powell for ten games. Powell was also ordered by the Yankees to march through Harlem, accompanied by black aviator Hubert Julian, in an act of apology.

His actions had unintended consequences. Now, baseball could not resist the efforts to integrate the game much longer without appearing to be as racist as Powell. While World War Two drew attention away from the topic of integration, they could not hide from it. Powell opened up that line of questioning, and within a decade, integration found its way to the Majors.

Powell also found his end within a decade of his remarks in 1938. Known as a thief, a gambler, a drunk and a philanderer in his playing days, in addition to being a bigot, Powell was arrested in Washington DC for passing bad checks on November 4, 1948. Then, with his girlfriend that he was staying with about to leave him, and his pending stint in prison, Powell shot himself in the police station, once in the chest and once in his left temple.

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Jake Powell was a player whose ability on the diamond overshadowed what type of person he was. At least, with his racist interview, he helped usher in the change that baseball needed.