Griffith Stadium - Status in Racial Disputes

Status in Racial Disputes

Griffith Stadium was located in the Shaw Neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a historically black area since the Civil War. The neighborhood was home to many black working-class people, but also a class of young, professional African American "elite" such as Langston Hughes. Duke Ellington worked at Griffith selling hot dogs during his childhood.

Griffith Stadium was not officially segregated, although an unofficial policy early after the 1920s expansion was that blacks sat in the right field pavilion. Calvin Griffith, nephew of Clark Griffith, claimed that the segregated seats were a result of "colored preachers ... asking Mr. Griffith to put aside a section for the black people."

Shorty after the end of World War I, after a report that several white women had been raped by a black man, a large group of whites seeking revenge marched toward the Shaw neighborhood. However, a conflict was avoided after these men came upon "a group of two thousand armed black men," who had been prepared and gotten their weapons at Griffith Stadium, chosen as a meeting place because of its landmark status in the community.

Senators management, seemingly uneasy about racial matters, were latecomers to integrating their team, hiring their first black player in late summer of 1954. The segregationist policy of the Redskins was more overt and controversial. In October 1957, a group of blacks picketed multiple times in front of Griffith Stadium, protesting the lack of black players on the Redskins. It would be five more years before the Redskins finally began employing black players, the last NFL team to erase the color line.