Sam Lacy began his career as a sports writer with the Washington Tribune, but his experiences and understanding of baseball and its inequity began much earlier.

As a young man fielding batting practice balls at Griffith Stadium, and later as a player in the Negro Leagues, he was able to assess the level of expertise of both black and white players in their separate leagues. Of the segregation he said, "there was something unreal and unfair about this, so when I got to the Washington Tribune in the 1930s, I began to campaign to correct something that I thought was a terrible injustice."

Lacy began a letter writing campaign to the commissioner of baseball, Judge Landis, as well as baseball owners and leading columnists like Dan Parker of the New York Mirror, Jimmy Powell of the N.Y. Daily News, John Carmicheal of the Chicago Daily News and Vincent Flaherty of the Los Angeles Examiner. While he had some positive responses from the reporters, Commissioner Landis and the owners did not respond.

Lacy moved to the Chicago Defender. He hoped the move would bring him closer to the baseball hierarchy and further his ability to challenge them into allowing players in the Negro Leagues an opportunity to join the Major League teams. Lacy was a strong supporter of the players in the Negro Leagues, but he admits that while the "Negro League was an institution, it was a symbol of social injustice...separate and unequal."

Because he did not receive the support he had expected in Chicago, Lacy decided to move on. When Carl Murphy, then the publisher of the AFRO-American, offered him the job of sports editor, he returned to Washington, D.C. Mr. Lacy has been a voice in the AFRO's sports department since 1944.

Mr Murphy granted him permission to make another appeal to baseball owners and this time, Leslie O'Connor, chair of the interim committee running baseball after the death of Commissioner Landis, granted Lacy an opportunity to speak to the owners in Detriot.

In his presentation, Lacy recommended to the owners that the Negro Leagues be a part of the organized baseball structure. He suggested that the Negro Leagues should be included as a fourth minor league, joining the International League, American Association, and the Pacific Coast League.

The arrangement Lacy proposed, would give owners a bigger pool of talent to draw from and black players would have an opportunity to be selected along with white players, based on their athletic ability. The owners agreed to set up a committee to study and then make recommendations on implementation.

The Major League Committee on Baseball Integration was established including Sam Lacy; Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers; Larry MacPhail, New York Yankees; and Judge Joseph H. Rainey of Philadelphia. Despite Lacy's efforts, he was only able to meet with Rickey twice--the committee never got off the ground.

However, Lacy continued his efforts towards integrating baseball. He and Wendell Smith, sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier, wrote articles suggesting the names of black players that they felt qualified for admission in the Major Leagues. Smith, who covered the Kansas City Monarchs, was very aware of Jackie's temperament and baseball abilities. Both writers felt Jackie Robinson was the black player to lead the integration of baseball.

Lacy was given permission by his publisher, Carl Murphy to work on the Jackie Robinson story for three years. Mr. Murphy understood the historical significance and wanted Lacy to follow Jackie and the process of the integration of baseball. As such, Lacy travelled with the Montreal farm team (which broke in Jackie in 1946) and later the Dodgers, developing a relationship with Robinson and experiencing some of the racism that was directed towards Jackie.

In Florida's spring training towns, like Daytona Beach and Sanford, the authorities would not permit the team to live together because of Jackie's presence. Ballparks were closed refusing to play an integrated game; and through it all, Jackie and the black reporters were forced to operate in a segregated world.

Ultimately, Lacy saw a transformation in the teams. Owners were starting to make changes because of Branch Rickey and the Dodgers' success. Rickey's profit margin grew and he was able to field a very competitive team. These black players were making contributions on the field but they were not making as much money as their white teammates. The constant social pressures from people like Sam Lacy, the superb athleticism of Jackie and the other black players, as well as the early success of the Dodgers, forced owners to offer more opportunities to more black players.