Segregation Games

Name: Segregation Games
Price: 229 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781625349293

Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation

David Faflik

$229

Hardback

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English

University of Massachusetts Press
01 May 2026

History of the Americas; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Sports teams & clubs; Baseball

Series: Sport for Social Change

A cultural history of race, resistance, and representation in a city divided by politics and play

When outfielder Bernie Carbo joined the Red Sox in 1974, he brought with him a toy gorilla named Mighty Joe Young that became the team’s unofficial mascot for several players and many in the local press. This seemingly innocent stuffed animal was introduced within a baseball team notorious for its stubborn discrimination, and during a particularly fraught era of racial discord in Boston. That June, after years of activism from the city’s Black community, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that Boston must address the segregation of its schools through redistricting and busing. The ensuing racial animus to these policies led some of the city’s white residents to throw bananas and chant monkey sounds at African American students as they integrated the predominantly white South Boston High School. In this agitated atmosphere, cultural symbols like the Red Sox’s Mighty Joe Young mirrored and amplified the heightened racial tensions of Boston’s busing crisis.

Situated at the intersection of US cultural and social history, Segregation Games examines the surprising ties in 1970s Boston between the racial segregation of the city’s schools and the racial controversies expressed on and off the field of “Red Sox Nation.” “I found out in the black community why they don’t come out [to Fenway Park],” explained Black player Reggie Smith of his experiences with the Red Sox and the city during this period. “The team was the last to get Black players, and some of the things I hear out in the stands make me sick.” To understand these connections, Faflik erases the lines between politics and sport, which routinely blurred in a city suffused with an anti-Black racism that was both deceptively subtle and fiercely overt.

Drawing upon deep archival research from sources that have largely been ignored, such as the Black press of the time, Faflik offers a carefully nuanced portrait of Boston’s cultural life at a pivotal moment in the city’s history.

By: David Faflik
Imprint: University of Massachusetts Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9781625349293
ISBN 10: 1625349297
Series: Sport for Social Change
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 01 May 2026
Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Further / Higher Education , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Faflik is professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. His books include That Futebol Feeling: Sport and Play in Brazil's Heartland and Transcendental Heresies: Harvard and the Modern American Practice of Unbelief.

Reviews for Segregation Games: Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation

""Faflik wisely uses the Bay State Banner--the city's long-running African American newspaper--to understand how Black Bostonians viewed the Red Sox and their relationship to Red Sox Nation in a way that hasn't been done before. A significant contribution.""--Zebulon Miletsky, author of Before Busing: A History of Boston's Long Black Freedom Struggle