To the Discussion Leader
Walter Dean Myers is one of the most celebrated writers in the field of literature for children and young adults working today. He has won both the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Outstanding Literature for Young Adults and the ALAN Award for his entire body of work. In addition, he is the winner of the Michael L. Printz Award which honors the highest literary achievement in books for young adults.
For his third book in the My Name Is America series, Myers offers readers behind the plate seats at games played by Negro League teams in the United States during 1948. The Journal of Biddy Owens is much more than a sports story though. Biddy's love of life and passion for baseball is juxtaposed against sadness and anger as he and his team members face racism and discrimination at almost every turn.
The Negro Leagues developed as a result of segregation practices in the major leagues. The unspoken rule banning black players was finally broken when Jackie Robinson was hired to play with the Dodgers' farm club in 1945. Throughout the pages of Biddy's journal walk some of the greatest players in the Negro Leagues and ultimately in all of American baseball, from Satchel Paige to Willie Mays.
The Journal of Biddy Owens chronicles a young man's love for America's favorite game and his life on the road and on the baseball fields playing in the Negro Leagues. As well, it is a sometimes sad but inspiring story of segregation in the United States and one adolescent's determination to question it, act against it, and dream beyond it.
Summary
Biddy Owens, seventeen-year-old "equipment manager, scorekeeper, errand boy, and sometimes right fielder" for the Birmingham Black Barons, dreams of becoming a major league baseball player. But it's 1948, and most black ballplayers must be content playing for the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers has just recently integrated baseball, but the white owners are reluctant to add too many blacks to their rosters. Along with scouting for athletic ability, the owners appear to be looking for "players who act a certain way," and won't react when insulted or taunted by white fans.
Biddy lives with his parents, sister Rachel, and Aunt Jack in Birmingham, but he spends much of his time on the road with the team as they play many exhibition games: That's where the money is. As they travel through Southern cities, the Barons are forced to use restrooms and drinking fountains marked "Colored Only," and they're barred from white stores, restaurants, and hotels. When they go to northern cities, like Chicago and New York, however, they are allowed into white establishments and there appears to be little or no discrimination.
Biddy sometimes gets a chance to play a few innings of a game, but his batting is terrible, and he begins to realize he's not good enough to play baseball in the Negro League. The season winds down with the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro League World Series against the Homestead Grays. Losing the first three games, they rally and win the fourth game. Though they play "like champions" in the next game, they lose it and the series. After talking with his family about his future, Biddy decides to go to college in the fall. He says, "I wasn't going to give baseball up, just the dream of being a professional. I would always root for the Black Barons, and love watching and being around them."
Thinking About the Book
1. Why did the Negro Leagues exist in 1948?
2. Biddy's journal is filled with examples of discrimination and prejudice. What incident do you remember most clearly? Why?
3. Walter Dean Myers, the author of The Journal of Biddy Owens, describes Biddy as a young man everyone seems to like. What are the personal qualities Biddy has that makes him so likeable?
4. What order did President Truman issue in July of 1948? What did this mean to black Americans?
5. If you had to choose one thing, besides baseball, that Biddy Owens thinks about most, what would it be? Explain.
6. Jackie Robinson and a few other Negro League players had been integrated into major league baseball before 1948. What does Biddy mean when he writes, on May 8th, "It seems to me that what the major leagues are looking for are players who act in a certain way."
7. On August 8th Biddy writes, "I love this game, but it don't love me." Explain what Biddy means.
8. Why did the Negro Leagues eventually disappear?
Student Activities
1. In your discussion groups consider the following question: Why do you think Walter Dean Myers, the author of Biddy's journal, does not have Biddy develop into a successful, professional, baseball player?
2. Identify the terms below and their importance in The Journal of Biddy Owens.
Patty Roller
Jim Crow car
Ku Klux Klan
N.A.A.C.P.
3.Find out more about the Negro Leagues and share the new information with your discussion group. Consider Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball League by Patricia McKissack and published by Scholastic. To learn more about the Birmingham Black Barons go to http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com and click on "Team Profiles." Using the same web site, click on "Player Profiles." Look up Cool Papa Bell, one of the players Biddy mentions in his journal, and find out why Bell was known as the Fastest Man in Baseball.
4. Join with the other members of your group and make a list of incidents where Biddy and his fellow teammates experience prejudice and discrimination. Are any of the examples on your list still around today? Explain.
5. Biddy's journal is filled with examples of just how much he loves the game of baseball. If you were to write a journal about the sport or hobby you enjoy most, what would be the subject of that journal? What is it about the sport or hobby that makes you love it so much?
6. When the Barons go to Mobile, Alabama, Biddy meets a fourteen-year-old batboy named Hank Aaron. Biddy says of Aaron, "He's right-handed but he held the bat with his left hand on top of his right hand. I told him he'd probably break his wrist that way, but he kept on doing it. Not too bright." Look at http://baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/aaron_hank.htm to see what became of this former batboy.
7. According to Biddy's story, the game of baseball was played during the Civil War and even before. Find out how and where the game of baseball began.
8. Read The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier, also by Walter Dean Myers. What instances of prejudice or discrimination do you find? How are Biddy and Scott alike? How are they different?
An Interview with Walter Dean
Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D. & Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D.: You mention that few people remember the old Negro Leagues and that records that do exist are scant and often inaccurate. Would you tell us about the research you did in preparation for writing The Journal of Biddy Owens? Did you have the opportunity to interview any of the former members of the Negro Leagues?
Walter Dean Myers: The most difficult part of the research for Biddy Owens was putting together a schedule for 1948. To do this I researched black newspapers of the period for accounts of games and schedules. One of the most interesting aspects of the Negro Leagues was the flexibility of the schedules. Teams, such as Biddy's Birmingham Black Barons, played against other teams in their league but also maintained a busy schedule of exhibition games. These games helped to support the teams, but also resulted in as many as three games in a single day.
I knew that many great ball players were banned from the major leagues simply because of their race. But listening to taped interviews and reading individual stories, I realized what a great time these guys had traveling throughout the country playing the game they loved.
RFA & EST: This is the third journal you've written for the My Name is America series. How was writing this book different from the other two?
WDM: I love the journal format. It's very easy for me to imagine day to day activities of my characters because I usually plan my own time on a daily basis. This book was somewhat different than the others because I know there are people who will remember the teams, the players, and the places I mention.
RFA & EST: In "About the Author," it states that as a teenager you were "an outstanding outfielder, but couldn't hit for two cents." Is the character of Biddy Owens patterned in any way after you?
WDM: Growing up in Harlem I had the chance to practice with a Negro League team. At fifteen I was over six feet tall and a fair athlete, but my skills didn't come close to some of the players I saw. Biddy's desire to play baseball was completely natural, but like most young men, he soon realized that he didn't have the skills. At my best I wouldn't have made it into the Negro Leagues with their high talent level.
RFA & EST:At the end of his journal Biddy plans to go to college and says, "I wasn't going to give baseball up, just the dream of being a professional." By having your main character decide on an education were you perhaps sending to the reader the message that very few athletes make it to the pros and should therefore have a more realistic life goal?
WDM: I saw Biddy as a good ballplayer, but not quite good enough to become a star in the Negro Leagues. His decision to go to college was simply realistic. He wasn't sure about his ability to maintain a professional career and this, along with the uncertain future of the Negro Leagues, made college an excellent choice. While it is true that few athletes make it to a professional level, even fewer have long professional careers.
RFA & EST: The hurtful incidents of prejudice and segregation that Biddy writes about did not end a few short years after 1948. You once told us about an event in your own life that echoed Biddy's experiences. Would you tell us about going to play basketball at the College of William and Mary?
WDM: Like the Negro League players, I traveled through the segregated south as a young man. Because I was black I was denied service at many restaurants and could only drink from water fountains marked "Colored." When I went to the movies I would have to sit in the Colored balcony. I remember one time being told I could not play in a basketball game at the College of William and Mary because I was black, even though I was playing with a United States Army team.
I wonder if young people can understand how I would feel more hurt than angry or, when the team traveled through the south, I would often elect not to go with them?
RFA & EST: If you could ask young readers of Biddy's journal one question after they finished reading your book, what would that question be?
WDM: What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke the color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. It was clear that all of the major league owners already knew the talents of the black ballplayers that they had refused to let into their league. There was no written policy that forbid these owners to hire African American players, only a "gentlemen's agreement." Do you think that other "gentlemen's agreements might exist today which bar people from sports or other professions because of race, gender or other factors?
Discussion Guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D., Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults, University of Houston and Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Houston, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Houston, Texas.
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