Stewart Udall’s Crusade
In 1955 the Detroit Lions signed their first African-American player, Walt Jenkins. The signing of Jenkins left George Preston Marshall’s Washington Redskins as the only remaining professional football team to exclude African-Americans from its roster, and it would be seven years before they would sign one. It took the efforts of the Kennedy administration—Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall in particular, Washington’s African-American community, and the NFL to force Marshall to integrate.

John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election with an historic amount of the African-American vote. Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Kennedy based on the civil rights platform of his campaign. The main weapon Kennedy used to try and fulfill his campaign promise on civil rights was executive action. Instead of the long laborious process of pushing legislation that might not pass Congress, the Kennedy administration’s strategy was to institute change through executive action. According to William Taylor a civil rights attorney and former official in the Kennedy administration and staffer on the Civil Rights Commission “there was not going to be an office in the White House, [for civil rights] which some people had been urging.” Instead, Taylor, who had been asked to staff a sub-cabinet level effort to explore the possibilities executive action said, “We were espousing the idea that there was a great deal the president could do in civil rights without getting new laws although, new laws were needed, but that he could issue executive orders… the principle idea was executive action. Maybe the most visible manifestation of it was during the campaign. Kennedy said that he could end discrimination in housing with the stroke of a pen.”

Kennedy’s approach to civil rights was cautious as the strategy of executive action illustrates. Much of what the Kennedy administration did was symbolic, such as inviting Marian Anderson, the famous African-American singer—who was denied the right to sing at the DAR Constitution Hall in 1939—to perform at Kennedy’s inauguration. Many Cabinet level officials resigned their memberships in clubs that practiced racial discrimination. Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg a long-time Redskin fan gave up his season tickets and boycotted Washington’s games as long as Marshall held out in integrating his team. Kennedy appointed many African-Americans to prominent government positions. However, he also appointed several white-supremacists to the federal bench and moved slowly to fulfill the civil rights promises of his campaign. Always the consummate politician and cognizant of what actually could be done to advance civil rights he also had important economic and foreign policy agendas to advance. According to Taylor, Kennedy, “did not want to antagonize the southern senators who were the chairs of committees because his legislative program could be damaged by them, he tread very carefully.”

To integrate the Washington Redskins, the Kennedy administration would use executive action. On March 24, 1961 Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall informed George Preston Marshall and the nation that the federal government was making the integration of the Washington Redskins a priority. Attorneys for the Interior Department, taking their cue from the protest that forced the Los Angeles Rams to integrate, informed Udall that the government could force Marshall to integrate by utilizing the non-discrimination clause in the stadium lease agreement he signed with the department. DC Stadium, later renamed RFK Stadium in honor Robert F. Kennedy was the spacious new home for the Redskins and Major League Baseball’s the Washington Senators. The stadium was built with public funds on federal lands—Anacostia Flats—the site of the fire set during the infamous Bonus March of 1932. The Interior Department was the landlord for DC Stadium and could deny use of the facilities to any entity that did not meet the provisions of the lease, in this case the non-discriminatory policies set forth by the Kennedy administration.

At a press conference on March 24, Udall announced, “It is certainly our feeling that here in the Nation’s Capital, with the marvelous new facility being built on property owned by all of the people of the country, that we ought to set the very highest of standards in terms of adhering to the policies of this Administration with regard to treating everyone in this country equally.” Udall sent a formal letter to Marshall advising him of the department’s new non-discrimination policies in the stadium lease. Udall wrote, “To harmonize our contract policies with the policy enunciated by the President,” the Interior Department implemented a new regulation that “prohibits discrimination in employment practices with respect to any activity provided for by a contract, lease or permit with an operator or sublessee of any public facility in a park area.” Udall, fully aware of Marshall’s racist policies, did not immediately slap him with any violations or lawsuits, Udall allowed Marshall some wiggle room, “I am cognizant of the fact that there have been consistent allegations that your company practices discrimination in the hiring of its players. We are not, at this time, passing judgment on this issue … However candor compels me to advise you of the implications of this new regulation and our view of its import.”

The response to Udall was typical Marshall. To the press he declared, “I don’t know what the hell its’ all about.” To Udall he sent a polite letter telling him, “I think the matter is thoroughly covered in our lease and it was discussed at length … As to our position at the present moment, we violate no laws of the United States and this lease was made on that basis.” Marshall quickly passed the matter on to his lawyers. Udall predicted resistance from Marshall and told reporters that if Marshall wanted an argument, “he is going to have a moral argument with the President and the administration.” Udall did consult the White House about his move, but his strong words however, played right into Marshall’s hand, as he loved a good tussle through the press. Marshall said “I would consider it a great honor to meet with and discuss this with the President of the United States … Yes I’d like to debate the President. I could handle him with words. I used to handle his old man.” This was most likely boisterous hyperbole from Marshall. There is no evidence to suggest that Marshall and Joseph P. Kennedy ever met or knew each other.

Marshall used the press to his advantage to hound Udall with straw man arguments and downplay the charge of racial discrimination. At a gathering of reporters Marshall said, “I didn’t know the government had the right to tell the showman how to cast the play.” “All the other teams have Negroes; does it matter which team has the Negroes?’ “Are they going to demand that the National Symphony Orchestra have Negroes? The Army and Navy football teams don’t have colored ball players will they be barred?” Marshall went on to inquire about putting colored reporters on staff at the Washington Post. Marshall asked why just Negroes? Why not a woman? Marshall quipped, “Of course w have had players that played like girls but never an actual girl player.”

Marshall’s broadsides did not intimidate Udall. In fact, the day after Marshall’s boasts to the press his attorneys Milton King and Bernard Nordlinger tried to temper Marshall’s pronouncements. King said, “We’ll live up to anything that’s in the lease we signed.” Nordlinger said, “I’m sure the Redskins will conform to all applicable statues and regulations.” However, Nordlinger also indicated more resistance from his client when he added, “On the other hand, it must be remembered that to engage the services of a Negro player simply because he is a Negro is as much discrimination against White players as would be the refusal to hire him (the Negro) because he is colored.”

Unfazed, Udall delivered the government’s October 1, 1961 deadline for the Redskins to comply. Asked by the press what Marshall would have to do by October, 1 Udall said, “I think that the question on October 1 … is does he have a policy of discrimination in the hiring of his players. We nay have to pass judgment on that question at that time.” He added that with a Black ball player the horrendous Redskins, (they only won one game the previous year), might win a few more games.

Udall’s commitment to “treating everyone in the country equally” was born out of his military service in World War II where he saw the hypocrisy of fighting the Nazis with racially segregated military forces. Udall no doubt saw a similar irony in Washington, DC where according to the Jim Crow customs of the city, its African-American denizens were treated as second-class citizens.

When William Taylor came to Washington, DC he astutely observed the racial segregation of the nation’s capital:

Well it was an interesting place. I had lived my whole life in New York, Washington was our nation’s capital but it was a much slower paced city. It had what I discovered to be a mixture of northern and southern influences it had a significant population both White and Black that came from the south and the city itself was governed by southern customs and mores. Jack Kennedy talked about Washington as a place with northern hospitality and southern efficiency. And there was truth to that. But this was the year 1959 and there were still racial practices that were pretty noticeable.

Glen Echo Park, a popular recreational area and amusement park in the Maryland suburbs just outside the city, was strictly segregated. Washington’s bus service, run by famed investor Roy Chalk, like the Redskins, did not hire African-Americans,

These racial practices were in effect during a period of time when Washington, DC experienced a major demographic shift. By 1960, Washington had become a majority-African-American city. In 1960, Washington had the highest number of African-Americans as a percentage of total population (55%) in U.S. cities. Whites were moving to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. African-American children made up over 76% of the city’s school system students. Furthermore, this predominately African-American city was managed and governed by Whites. The city’s three commissioners were White, as was its police chief, its judges, and the school board. US News and World Report noted, “The government of Whites in city with a majority of Negroes rests upon the character of the District of Columbia Government.”

Washington was northern city with racist and segregationist southern customs and mores, which were also reflected in its professional football team as well. Bobby Mitchell recalling his trade to Washington and encountering its southern customs said “Someone had to remind me Washington was south of Baltimore.”

African-Americans fought against segregationist and racist practices in Washington’s political and economic arenas and they did so as well against those of George Preston Marshall’s Redskins. Many African-Americans did not root for the Redskins under George Preston Marshall. Ralph Neal, an assistant superintendent in the DC Public Schools and one of the first African-Americans to integrate the DC public school system after the Brown and Bolling court cases described his feelings and those of his segregated neighborhood about the Redskins.

I knew that the Redskins was a segregated team I knew that the Redskins did not cater to African Americans I knew that the supporters of the Redskins were from Washington, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, we did not have the Falcons we did not have any teams in Florida, we knew all through the days of Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and during the days of Sam Baugh that the Redskins were a southern football team and George Preston Marshall … catered to the spectators … but most of the spectators during those days were White. They had some Black spectators but we didn’t have any Black players to emulate on the Redskins. Many African American residents rooted for the Baltimore Colts because they had the great Black running back Lenny Moore or they cheered for the Cleveland Browns because of Jim Brown.

Darryl Hill, a boyhood friend of Neal, who grew up in Washington and integrated the Atlantic Coast Conference football at the University of Maryland, saw it this way:

I guess I was naïve. Because I’d been a Redskin fan all my life and I didn’t think about it much, as much as I should have. Right toward the end when they drafted Ernie Davis and then traded for Bobby Mitchell I began to think about it. I guess as I got older and one of the bad things about just shows you how you can get used to and so accepting of something through lethargy. I probably should have been more demonstrative about it than I really was. I never really shunned them (the Redskins) for that reason. …. Its funny how, I don’t know because the Colts were right down the road and they were loaded up in the 50s with a lot of Blacks. My favorite player, Lenny Moore, played for the Colts. I tried to emulate him. I guess by the 60s when I got more mature and understood it, and certainly by the time I experienced it here at Maryland, I was paying more attention to the Skins and what they were doing or not doing.

The main target of attack from African-Americans was of course George Preston Marshall. “This column” Sam Lacy of he Baltimore Afro American in frustration with Marshall’s refusal to integrate, wrote, “has never advocated suicide but in GPM’s case it would be readily forgivable.” A group of African-American business owners and professionals calling themselves Character Inc. picketed a 1957 Redskins-Giants game in New York.

African-Americans and others had long attacked what Sam Lacy called Marshall’s “lily white stubbornness.” Harry Wismer the former Redskins broadcaster and stockholder said that he had been, “squelched” by Marshall, “every time he suggested the professional football team hire Negro players.” Wismer said, “Marshall told me to do the broadcasting and he would run the football team. Shirley Povich, who Marshall referred to as a “fifth columnist” and once said, “Isn’t it strange how such a charming lady as Ethel Povich could have married that horrible man,” was a constant voice railing against Marshall’s racism. Describing a Redskins-Browns game in 1960 Povich wrote:

For 18 minutes the Redskins were enjoying equal rights with the Cleveland Browns yesterday, in the sense that there was no score in the contest. Then it suddenly became unequal in favor of the Browns, who brought along Jim Brown, their rugged colored fullback … From 25 yards out Brown was served the ball … on a pitch out and he integrated the Redskins goal line with more than deliberate speed, perhaps exceeding the famous Supreme Court decree … and the Redskins goal line, at least became interracial.

Marshall Concedes

Public reaction to Udall’s ultimatum was mixed, but he received more hate mail than praise, according to Jack Walsh of the Washington Post it was, “running about 15 or 20 to 1” against his position. “Aggrieved Redskin fan and Washington resident Carl White chided Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for allowing Udall a “highly paid cowboy in the New Frontier rodeo” to harass private businessmen and commit “clownish buffoonery” that in his eyes made a mockery of the Democratic administration. Curtis Williams of the Kingsport Tennessee Machinist School complained to Udall, “Just what is this United States coming to—when a football owner is forced to put a (black person) on his team—just to please a minority that has taken over our way of life.” Mr. Curtis went to writing that Udall’s stance was, “causing people to loose respect for our form of government.” Curtis apparently had no qualms about his feelings that he addressed the letter on the Kingsport Tennessee Machinist School’s official letter head. Other news outlets sympathetic to Marshall echoed his straw man arguments. Udall, the Augusta Chronicle claimed, “didn’t specify the number of Negroes that are to replace White members of the team, but maybe the administration can get Congress to pass a law establishing a proper racial ratio to be maintained—and to heck with football ability.” The Chronicle sarcastically recommend that Udall should ensure that Marshall have a proper racial balance among spectators and a federal grant program to pay for it. Sportswriter Doc Greene dismissed Marshall’s obvious racial leanings and framed the argument as political and ideological. Greene, said that when, “the government shall have the authority to construct the personnel of athletics” as “it’s done in Russia … as the Olympic Games’ results attest … the next move is a commissar of sport. I like it better the way it is … even with George.”

However, Udall did receive some praise and support. Leah Feingold wrote Udall and said, “As a white resident of the District for 20 years, I feel this policy [Marshall’s] in the Nation’s Capital hurts our country’s prestige abroad, and its moral integrity in this country. Sam Lacy applauded Udall. Lacy pointed out the hypocrisy of supposedly liberal Washington residents who supported Marshall by buying Redskin season tickets that “stuffed Ph.D. degrees into their pockets and donned fresh badges of humiliation in order to sit in on 60 minutes of one-sided football.”

Jackie Robinson made public his displeasure with Marshall’s racial policies. In a letter to Udall, Robinson said “For too many years Mr. Marshall has been able to cover up his apparent prejudice by telling people to give me a Lenny Moore and we would use him’… If the other clubs continue to find good Negro players than why can’t he? … This attitude has no place in sports or in our American way of life.” Marshall’s responded to Robinson was, “Jackie Robinson is in the business of exploiting a race and makes a living doing it. I’m not. He doesn’t qualify as a critic.”

During the spring and summer of 1961 Udall held his ground against the withering criticism. Even the American Nazi party marched outside DC Stadium in protest of his stance. Udall reiterated his warning to Marshall that the Redskins would lose the right to use DC Stadium if the racial ban was not lifted. Still, Marshall and the Redskins continued their intransigence and obfuscation calling Udall’s demands, “rather vague.” The situation certainly looked as if it was headed for an impasse.

However, another significant event in the history of the NFL was occurring simultaneously. Pete Rozelle and the newly created NFL television committee were negotiating with the federal government to obtain anti-trust immunity, similar to that granted to Major League Baseball, in order to collectively negotiate a league-wide television contract.

Rozelle ascended to the NFL’s commissioner’s office in 1960 and the television policy he inherited was feudal. Each team owner lorded over their markets like tribal chieftains. George Preston Marshall controlled the largest market with his network, which covered the nearly the entire south. Rozelle’s central ideology was what David Harris called “League Think,” that is the idea that the league needed unity of purpose and harmony. Rozelle wanted to, “reverse the process by which the weak clubs got weaker and the strong clubs got stronger. Rozelle wanted competitive and economic balance among the league’s teams. He observed that sports leagues failed when a small group of teams became dominant. Rozelle’s main tool to implement “League Think” would be the league’s television policy. The owners would abandon their television fiefdoms and negotiate collectively with the networks and share the television revenue. However, to implement the television agreement the NFL had needed exemption from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

In March and April of 1961 when Udall issued his warning to Marshall, Rozelle and the NFL stayed neutral. Rozelle said, “That’s strictly a club problem and the league office is not concerned with it. It’s something Mr. Marshall will have to work out.” Rozelle’s tune quickly changed that summer when the Supreme Court denied the NFL’s request for exemption. Rozelle spent the rest of that summer in Washington, at the height of the Udall-Marshall battle, lobbying Congress for anti-trust exemption. A league owner in a public battle with a cabinet-level government official during a crucial time for the league’s new lucrative television contract was not what Rozelle needed. Marshall’s row with Udall flew directly in the face of “League Think.” If Udall followed through on his threat to deny use of the stadium to the Redskins, who were an integral part of the television package, the whole deal would be wrecked. This prompted the owners to press Rozelle to mediate the conflict between Udall and Marshall. Rozelle met with Marshall and persuaded him to acquiesce. The fate of the league’s television contract no doubt was pressure point on which Rozelle influenced Marshall to relent.

On August 9, 1961 Marshall sent Rozelle a letter informing the commissioner that the Redskins had no policy of “against the hiring of football players because of their race.” Marshall also informed Rozelle that his staff had scouted several Black players “that rate highly for this year’s League selection meeting [NFL Draft].” Marshall mentioned Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, the fist African-American to win the Heisman Trophy as his most coveted prospect. Furthermore Marshall wrote, “I can assure you that if any of these names are still on the board, at the time of selection, or if there is cooperation from the League to acquire them I shall be glad to select them at the next meeting.” Marshall’s concession prompted one from Udall. Udall allowed the Redskins use of DC Stadium for the 1961 season on the condition that Marshall abides by his concession to select an African-American in the draft that December. On September 30, 1961 Congress passed the Sports Anti-Trust Broadcast Act, which allowed sports leagues to collectively negotiate and pool their television rights, giving Pete Rozelle the key tool to implement “League Think.”

Unhappy about Udall’s concession and feeling a bit betrayed by him the NAACP and CORE picketed DC Stadium and Marshall’s own home during the 1961 season. The Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP organized a boycott of a Redskins-Rams charity game to support local boys clubs in Los Angles to protest not only Marshall’s racist policies but those of the Los Angles Times as well. The newspaper was a co-sponsor of the charity game.

Asked to comment on the planned protest Marshall sardonically said, “I don’t understand people complaining about something that helps them.” CORE and a local Los Angeles labor union later joined the NAACP in its protest of the Redskins and the Los Angles Times. In Washington, the NAACP’s DC Branch ratcheted up the pressure on Marshall as well. Believing that Marshall would not comply with Udall’s demands the Youth Council of the DC Branch organized a boycott of the Redskins and picket lines outside DC Stadium. Reverend Franklin E. Jackson head of the DC Branch said, “We don’t believe owner George Marshall has any intention of hiring Negroes for his team.” Udall gave Marshall the benefit of the doubt saying that, “we felt it was better to accept the offer that he [Marshall] made through the Commissioner [Rozelle] as a good faith offer and wait and see what he does in December in the hope that a satisfactory solution would emerge.” Udall at a press conference warned that draft would be the “showdown on this.” Udall comically quipped, “I think he knows we mean business and I think that the place for him to show his colors is on the draft and this is what he promised.” Marshall kept his promise and selected Ernie Davis with first selection of the draft. The Redskins promptly traded the rights to Davis to the Cleveland Browns for halfback Bobby Mitchell. Cleveland coach Paul Brown wanted two bull-like runners in his backfield. Davis was built like the burly Jim Brown and was exactly the kind of back Paul Brown wanted.

Many people believe this trade gives Bobby Mitchell the credit for being the first African-American Redskin. He wasn’t. That distinction belongs to Ron Hatcher a fullback from Michigan State. Hatcher was drafted in the later rounds after Ernie Davis. He signed a contract before the Mitchell trade was completed. However, Mitchell by the fact of his stardom in Cleveland gets the credit, understandably so, for being the first African American to play for the Redskins.

In his first game with the Redskins Mitchell was simply sensational, scoring two touchdowns. Stewart Udall attended that game and heard a Black fan scream out loud “Thank God for Mr. Udall.”

Forcing George Preston Marshall to integrate his roster is one thing; however, someone had to actually be the first African-American to play for the Redskins. As noted earlier Mitchell was not “the first” African American to have a spot on the Redskins roster. Mitchell was not the only Black player that Washington traded for either. The Redskins brought in guard, John Nisby in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hatcher did not play in the 1962 season and Nisby was an offensive lineman, a position that did not garner the headlines and gridiron glory that running back or wide receiver did.

What was it like for Mitchell to come from the Cleveland Browns to the Redskins? Did he understand the magnitude of the trade and what it would mean? This is an answer that is not easy to answer because sources are limited. One reason, Mitchell no longer wishes to speak about the matter. He feels that his integration of the Redskins has overshadowed his playing career. He feels that all he is known for is that he was the first African-American to play for the Redskins and the fact that he was a great player and a Hall of Fame inductee is forgotten.

What we do know, is that Mitchell at first did not grasp the significance that he was going to the all-White Redskins. He was more disturbed by the fact that he was being traded, “I had just settled in to a life in Cleveland, and all of a sudden someone is saying ‘get out of here.’ It wasn’t so much Washington, it wasn’t until later until I said whoa, I’m going to the Washington, Redskins, of all places.”

Player movement in the 1960s was not as prevalent as it is now in the era of free agency. Prior to free-agency, players were intimately connected to the community in which they played. They lived in the cities they played for and in many cases were friends with the fans. When a team traded a player it was an almost traumatic experience for that player. Sam Huff, who built his Hall of Fame credentials with the New York Giants was upset and angered when he was traded from the Giants to the Redskins:

I mean, that was uncalled for. That was done by an offensive-oriented coach and we had a great defense. We had the culture of defense, just like the Giants still do. I had my children--and one of the tough parts about being a pro football player, about being an athlete--okay? In those days you didn’t have a job. And so, you go to training camp in July and you leave your family there in West Virginia? You leave your family and then you make the team and your family is in school, and you gotta pull them out of school and put them in a school in Long Island, which I did. You know. And I said, you know, this is ridiculous. I’m going to start living in New York, in Long Island, and I bought a house in Long Island. So, my children were in school there… Move your family to Washington, right? You’ve got guys you’ve played against you had to go shake hands with and say, You know, hey, I'm glad to be a part of you now. And I never did say that, because I'd be lying to them--and they knew that. Like Sonny Jurgensen says—we came to Washington two weeks apart—you know what he says whenever we played the Giants? "Sam still bleeds blue."

Huff’s feelings about his trade to another team are indicative of the NFL players of the era. He even asked Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns to intervene to stop the trade. Huff’s teammate on the Giants, Frank Gifford told him simply not to go. Mitchell felt similarly to Huff at the thought of being traded. Mitchell didn’t want to come to Washington because he was leaving a great team. He loved playing for Paul Brown, who he thought was as good as or better than Vince Lombardi.

Mitchell had more than just leaving a winning team and adjusting to a new team with a recent history of losing, and uprooting his family to a new city. He had all the hopes of Washington’s African-American community on his back. According to Mitchell he was, “their shinning light. I was what they had been waiting for… I had to be the perfect Superman each game, which was impossible. I got a lot of devil from the Blacks. Bobby Mitchell had to be perfect. And that didn’t end after the first season, it went on and on.”

Mitchell felt like a hostage. He did not socialize with his teammates or go out to restaurants or clubs. He went to practice and straight home. “I would have loved to just have been able to go out and play football. The things you do to get ready for Sunday were just hell. I just wanted to play.”

Mitchell also had to deal with a backlash from Whites as well. Former Redskins play-by-play radio announcer Frank Herzog, recalled a story about Mitchell’s experience with racism from White Redskin fan:

Mo Siegel told a story—the old, late sports writer, of meeting Bobby Mitchell his first day in town. It was a Saturday before the Redskins first game he would play in and he took him to dinner. And, a guy walked up to their table at dinnertime and said, “Excuse me, are you Bobby Mitchell, the new Redskin?” And, Bobby said, “yes, I am”. And, the guy spit in his water glass.

There was also animosity from his Redskin teammates. Some on the team t were opposed to a Black player on the team and didn’t want to play with him. That he was a star in Cleveland and garnered much of the headlines also grated on his new teammates.

Mitchell a quiet and reserved man by nature kept to himself and concentrated on playing football and being a great player, which was all he ever wanted to be. Many fans, both Black and White alike misconstrued Mitchell’s quietness as arrogance and aloofness. William Taylor remarked on meeting Mitchell, “I saw him around Joe Raugh’s (famed civil rights and labor attorney) swimming pool. But, we never had much of a conversation because he didn’t encourage a lot of conversation.”

What we can conclude from Mitchell himself is drawn from one single NFL Films interview. However, we can compare Mitchell’s experience with that of Darryl Hill and makes some reasonable conclusions about Mitchell’s experience. Hill, a local DC high-school football star, was the first African American to play football in the ACC (for Maryland), a conference of all southern universities. Hill integrated the ACC one year after Mitchell integrated the Redskins. In fact one Washington newspaper called Hill, “Maryland’s Bobby Mitchell.”

After a year at Xavier and another at the United States Naval Academy, Maryland coach Tom Nugent lured him to College Park. . Hill did not have to endure animosity from his teammates as Mitchell did from his Redskin mates, because as Hill stated, “at that time Maryland recruited primarily from the north so the heart of this football team came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and these kids were used to playing with African-Americans. So I was nothing new or special to them, it wasn’t a big deal. I guess they were more concerned with could I help them win.”

However, Hill did feel the sting of racism during road games. A riot nearly broke out at South Carolina when Hill tried to take the field, because the Game****s refused to play a game against a team that featured a Black player. At Clemson Hill was ready to walk off the field and refused to play the game because school officials would not seat his mother at the stadium. Only until the president of Clemson brought his mother to his box and secured his mother’s safety would he play. Not all of Hill’s experiences with southern teams were negative. Before Maryland’s game against Wake Forest, where the crowd was excessively harsh on him, Wake’s star player came up and put his arm around him in full view of the angry crowd, and told him everything was going to be all right. That player was Brian Piccolo, who would later be immortalized by the television movie, Brian’s Song.

When asked about the legacy of what he did at Maryland and what he thinks about it, Hill is very modest and echoes Mitchell:
 

To be honest with you, not a great deal. If I hadn’t of done it somebody would have. The only thing I think that I probably feel fairly well about is that if I had faltered or failed in some way or something had gone awry or I had quit in the middle of it, it may have delayed the process by some period of time. So it was sort of a test case. Sort of like Jackie Robinson, they waited to see what would happen with him before they brought in Black number two. That would have happened. So from that point of view I was glad you know that it went as planned and it didn’t slow down the process. Aside from that I don’t think it was, well I can’t say it was insignificant but certainly not dwelling on it.

When asked if his experience was worth the negative experiences he endured Hill replied, “Definitely worth it.”

Mitchell has similar feelings about his part in integrating the Redskins and they come from retrospection though the prism of a lifetime of experiences and something Martin Luther King told him. King told Mitchell that they would not get anything from their struggles the people that come behind them do, those fruits were not for them. Mitchell came to understand this when after his playing career ended he was never seriously considered for a general manager position with the Redskins or any other NFL franchise. Nor were any other African-Americans for that matter, an issue Mitchell had been very active about his whole career. He never agitated or publicly argued for that type of job. Andy Pollin said Mitchell, was a guy, for a long time, who turned the other cheek.

Why? Mitchell says, “It came from that one (and only) discussion with Martin, and I believed him and he was right. We don’t get anything the people behind us get the opportunity we get nothing. But all around you people are going to get something and that is where my satisfaction has come from all these many years.” Like Hill, Mitchell understands that what he did made a difference and when asked about the scope of his career and his legacy he said, “I would like it written right under my chest ‘the struggle was worth it.”

In 2003 the same year Mitchell retired, the Baltimore Ravens named Ozzie Newsome their general manager. Newsome is the first African American general manager in the NFL.

Conclusion
George Preston Marshall refused to integrate his team until 1962 for four reasons. First and foremost he was a racist and a segregationist and did not want African-Americans on his team. Second, his business plan or “southern strategy” directly fed off the first reason. Marshall marketed and built the Washington Redskins to be the team of the south. When Boston did not provide him the fan base he needed he moved the team to Washington his hometown, a southern city with southern customs and rules. Marshall knew the south and made the Washington Redskins the team of the south by drafting players from southern white colleges and incorporating southern traditions like Dixie into the marketing of his team. Third, until 1961 there were no forceful external forces exerting pressure on Marshall to integrate, even after professional football lifted its unofficial ban in 1946. Fourth, Marshall’s personality played a major factor in his resistance to change. Even though he was an innovator and embraced change in some aspects of his business his racism and egotism prevented him from initially seeing the advantages of signing African-American players. Marshall was an arch-capitalist and savvy business man with a flair for promotion and a nose for potential profits. Marshall’s southern business strategy had made him wealthy in the past and it shielded him somewhat from the charge of discrimination, which allowed him to reap profits and still hold to his racist beliefs while the rest of the league and the country changed around him.

Marshall’s decision to integrate was determined by three external factors and his own sense of what was good for business. The first external factor was the ultimatum issued by Stewart Udall and the Kennedy administration. Udall’s edict set the process of integration in motion. He had the backing of President Kennedy and the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Udall also brought to bear the full resources of the federal government against Marshall. Second, the “New Frontier” spirit of the Kennedy administration coupled with the burgeoning civil rights movement in the United States. Both the administration and the civil rights groups that were against Marshall fed off one other and provided an impetus to act. The Kennedy administration swept into office on a robust civil rights campaign platform and George Preston Marshall provided the administration with a large target. Civil rights groups such as the NAACP and CORE, and the African American press led by Sam Lacy now had the federal government on their side and an even greater reason to step up their pressure on Marshall.

Combined, the Kennedy administration and the civil rights groups put tremendous pressure on Marshall. This pressure was mainly exerted through the media and print press. Although, Marshall loved a good fight in the press Udall, the Kennedy administration and the African-American press were too much for him. By 1961 the attitudes of many Americans towards race and equality were changing and the country was riding an inexorable wave towards freedom and equal rights before the law.

The third external factor exerting pressure on Marshall was the evolution of the NFL and its marriage with television. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle saw the value that television brought to the league and the stability and growth that shared television revenue would bring to the league. George Preston Marshall’s intransigence stood in the way of Rozelle’s vision.

The stadium issue directly jeopardized the first league-wide television contract with the networks. If Marshall lost use of DC Stadium due to his refusal to sign Black players then the Redskins, a major part of the television package and the team that would be featured in the southern market, would have no place to play therefore no games could be televised. Furthermore, the situation put Rozelle congressional lobbying effort at a serious disadvantage. His argument for an anti-trust exemption—necessary to legally obtain a collective television package—while a league member was openly defying another branch of the federal government was the proverbial albatross.

The logic of a network television contract eventually played into Marshall’s own sense of what was good for business. The new television contract which would net his franchise $330, 000 wiped out his stranglehold on the southern market. Even though the Redskins would be the featured southern team in the new television deal, they were not the only team being broadcast in the southern market. This arrangement wiped out the excuse he used to shield himself from charges of racial discrimination. He could no longer use the excuse for passing over Black players as a business decision to avoid offending his southern fan base. In fact, African-American football players created such a shift in competition in the NFL that one sports columnist claimed, that obtaining the services of African-American players was, “not an argument for social equality” rather it was “a matter of practical football policy.

In 1961 the Washington Redskins were a source of division in Washington, DC. George Preston Marshall and a good many White fans did not want a Black player on the team. The federal government and the city’s African-American community did want a Black player on the team. Bobby Mitchell came to Washington and played for the Redskins, completing the reintegration of professional football. Not all fans of the team were happy about this. However, the Redskins became a better team because of it. In 1961 their record was 1 win 12 losses and 1 tie. The year before that it was 1-9-2. In 1962, with Mitchell they were 5-7-2, a losing record but still they won as many games that season as they did the previous three seasons. Bobby Mitchell’s stellar play brought African-American fans to the Redskins. The team would add future Hall-of-Fame players and fan favorites Sonny Jurgensen, Sam Huff and Charley Taylor. These players would help remold the White fan base George Preston Marshall cultivated into a diverse group of loyal fans from all backgrounds.

Why is this story important? Why is this 47-year old tale of the integration of a football team relevant? The relevance lies in the team’s importance to a community and the social and even intrapersonal relationships that exist within that community. For the longest time the Redskins were only a source of unity for the White community of Washington, DC. To African-Americans the team was a source of anger and a symbol of the second class status they held in American society. The successful integration of the Redskins did not signal the end of racism, racial discrimination or even segregation. In fact, viewed in the context of the Civil Rights Movement it was a minor but symbolic victory for equality before the law. However, what it did accomplish was the destruction of the racial polarization centered around the Redskins.

Today the Redskins are a source of unity and connection for tens of thousands of people in the Washington, DC region. Win or lose the result is felt collectively. While they don’t erase all our differences and disagreements, they do fulfill a basic human yearning; a need to belong to something larger than ourselves. Redskins’ management touched this particular nerve with the new tailgating regulations that will threaten the communal gatherings and rituals of fans, who have tailgated together for years and in some cases decades.

The bond is a generational one as well. The Redskins, who Ralph Neal once shunned because of Marshall’s racist policies, now serve as a tie between him and his daughter.

On Sundays, the two of us would sit down in the basement and watch football games, the Redskins and what other game after the Redskins and her mother would be upstairs. This was a relationship my daughter and I had. And we still have this relationship right now. She’s in Atlanta, Georgia. She has season tickets to the Falcons, but she loves the Redskins. Okay? I have two grandsons. They love the Falcons, but they’re crazy about the Redskins. My daughter has a Redskins jacket; my grandsons have Redskins jerseys. One is eight and one is seven. My granddaughter, who is three, she probably will get a Redskins jersey for Christmas. So, we have a love for the Washington Redskins.

In 1988, just before the Redskins NFC Championship game against the Minnesota Vikings WRC TV news anchor Jim Vance captured what the Redskins mean to the area and its fans. Vance said, “I want them to win, not so much because I like them … but rather of what it does for this region. It brings us together: Black, White, young, old, rich, and poor. Nothing brings this place together like the Washington Redskins. So I hope they beat the Vikings and go to the Super Bowl and win that, too. If that makes me a homer, that’s okay because no city in the country needs the unity, even for one night like we do.”

The Redskins beat the Vikings and Doug Williams went on to make history in the Super Bowl. The Redskin team that Vance spoke of was built with the help of assistant general manager Bobby Mitchell.