The American Idea on Sports and Race: A Conversation with Larry Lester and Rebecca Alpert
October 2, 3:30 PM
Baseball—the great American pastime—also serves as a lens through which to explore and examine broader American ideas on race, heroes and popular culture. Join Larry Lester, a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, associate professor of religion at Temple University and author of Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball (Oxford University Press, 2011), to discuss the history of race and baseball. Lester has served as a curator and consultant at numerous cultural institutions, including the African American Museum in Dallas, Texas, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Lester authored The Negro Leagues Book (Society for American Baseball Research, 1994), which has been called “the most complete collection of information on . . . the Negro Leagues ever published.” Alpert has published several journal articles on Jews and baseball, was featured as an expert commentator in the film, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (Willow Pond Films, 2010, directed by Peter Miller), and is frequently consulted by the press on the subject. Both Lester and Alpert name Jackie Robinson as a hero and inspiration.