CONNECT
FRANCES DIAZ
Game A
Time
s 12-year-old Gary Fleming took the field for the state championship, he had no idea that he was preparing to play in one of the most historic Little League games right on Orlando’s own Tinker Field. Other than the thousand observers in the stands, where there were usually no more than 20 or 30 friends and family members, it felt like any other day at the ballpark to Gary and his team, the Kiwanis. But this game was taking place in 1955, the players on the other team were black, and they were about to compete in the first interracial Little League game in the South. When the Pensacola Jaycees, the Kiwanis’ opposing team, were selected for the Little League All-Stars, they were ecstatic. However, when it came time for the Little League World Series Tournament, all the other all-star teams in the Panhandle District refused to play them, which, according to the official rules, meant that they forfeited. Since they were unopposed in their district, the Jaycees were declared the district champions and had the opportunity to advance to the state tournament in Orlando. After much deliberation by the Orlando City Council, the city decided to allow its Little League team to play in the tournament. So the Jaycees packed up in a bus and began the
journey to Orange County which, at the time, was the sixth deadliest county for AfricanAmericans in the country. Though this game was a historic step toward racial integration, Gary and his teammates would go on for the next 60 years and not think much of it, outside of the fact that they had won. That is, until production began for the documentary “Long Time Coming,” which follows the events and conflicts that led up to the Pensacola Jaycees and the all-white Orlando Kiwanis meeting on the ball field in 1955. The documentary brought Gary and six other players from the Kiwanis together to talk about what their lives were like at the time of the game and, for the first time, asked to reflect upon their experience playing in the championship against the Jaycees. “It was a neat time because they put together both of our Little League teams. For all of us to get back together, that was really special,” Gary says. “After they asked us what our thoughts and our feelings were about the game, it piqued the interest in our minds about what were [the other team’s] thoughts and what were their feelings. Because we never had even thought about that or really thought what it would be like for a young black team coming all the way down here.”
GREG PERKINS SU M MIT
36
ISSUE 30