One Hundred Years of

The Breach

Sixteen teams. One press of play. Watch the league turn gold, one franchise at a time, over twelve years compressed into thirty seconds.
Section   03 / 06
Window   Apr 1947 — Jul 1959
Run-time   30 seconds
Last to light   Red Sox
Fig. 03 · The Breach · 16-team diamond, animated

All cells start dark. That is the color of exclusion.

Press play. Cells light in the order each franchise signed its first Black player. Brooklyn first. Cleveland a season later. Then a pause. Then a wave. Then the long, dark tail held by the Yankees, the Phillies, the Tigers, and — for twelve years, three months, six days — the Boston Red Sox.

1947 April · pre-play
0/ 16
franchises integrated
National League— eight clubs
THE SIXTEEN
1947 — 1959
American League— eight clubs
The Red Sox cell sits dark while fifteen others glow around it for 4,480 days. That duration is the argument.
dark — not yet integrated
lit — first Black player signed
resistant — lit after Apr 1955