Champions on the Bench
By Carole Boston Weatherford; Leonard Jenkins (Illustrator)
(Dial, Hardcover, 9780803729872, 32pp.)
Publication Date: December 28, 2006
Categories: People & Places - United States - African-American, Social Issues - Prejudice & Racism, Sports & Recreation - Baseball
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In 1955, the Cannon Street YMCA chartered the only African American Little League in South Carolina. That same year, sixty-one all-white teams pulled out of the South Carolina Little League State Tournament so they would not have to play the Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars. This story, inspired by the true events of that time, follows one young ballplayer, Cleveland, through that fateful season.
Cleveland dreams of playing baseball like his heroes Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron. He believes he will get that chance when he makes the Cannon Street All-Star team. But things don’t go as planned when Cleveland and his teammates find out they are not allowed to play in the tournament despite their talent and hard work during the season. Yet even in the face of such prejudice, the Cannon Street All-Stars find a way to make their families and coaches proud.
Carole Boston Weatherford lives in High Point, North Carolina.
Leonard Jenkins lives in New York City.
“This is a powerful story, well told. By placing one boy’s segregated baseball summer in the context of an integrated World Series, Weatherford gives readers a blazing picture of our country in the early struggles to abolish segregation. A first choice.”—School Library Journal
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