"The People's Cherce": Dixie Walker's daughter is also his biographer

If you get a chance to read this book about Dixie Walker, please do.  You'll get to find out that the man on "the other side" of history wasn't the complete roadblock to history that folklore has made him out to be.

If you had the chance to watch the new Jackie Robinson flick, 42, you will see that Fred "Dixie" Walker, aka.. "The People's Cherse" was portrayed as a complete racist who put together a petition to block Robinson's entry into baseball.  The problem with movies like 42 and revisionist history judged today, over 65 years later is that it doesn't tell the full story in the light of 1947 morals and expectations.

In this book, Walker's daughter gets to tell her dad's side of the story.  Dixie was a true Southern gentleman.  He owned a hardware store back home and he knew the racist tendencies of pre-Civil Rights Alabama.  Heck we all know that Jim Crow reigned supreme back in the deep south during that era.  This isn't a shock or uncovered news to any of us.  Dixie knew if he openly endorsed Robinson his business would have folder.  The locals would have boycotted it.  He needed that business, because back in those days ballplayers had to work in the off season to earn money, unlike the spoiled pampered elitists who play today.

Dixie's daughter insists that he did not start the petition, nor did he advocate others to sign it.  He was looking out for his business interests.  This obviously doesn't make him a sypothetic character to any movie goer who saw the 42 film, but it was the reality of 1947 America.

What the movie also neglected to say is that as the season went on Walker grew to admire Robinson's unique talents and supported him because he helped the Dodgers win the pennant.  Winning the pennant back then meant a lot of money in a player's pocket.  So once again we see that Dixie's opinions and choices were economically driven, not racially driven.

After the season ended he was dealt to Pittsburgh, which on the surface looked like it was in response to his initial request to be dealt back in early '47.  In fact it was an astute business decision, not an emotional dump of a racist, by the great Mr. Rickey.  Walker was traded to Pittsburgh for key pieces to the Dodgers pennant run over the next 6 or 7 years.  In exchange for the 38 year old Walker the Dodgers got Preacher Roe and Bill Cox.  Roe went on to go 93-37 in 7 seasons in Brooklyn, which included 3 pennants.  Cox became the best fielding third baseman in the league during that same stretch.  Walker played just 2 seasons with Pittsburgh before retiring.

After retiring, Walker spent the rest of this career in baseball as a coach and manager.  By all

accounts he worked well with the black ballplayers that he was charged with training and coaching.  Never was their an account of him being racist or negative.  If he was, he would have been out of baseball as quick as you can say "Ben Chapman".

Walker retired after 18 seasons with a lifetime .306 average.  The dark cloud hanging over his head in regards to the his supposed role in history has kept him out of the Hall of Fame.  Amazingly, old time Brooklyn Dodgers fans will still talk glowingly, even today, of "the People Cherce" and Jackie in the same sentence.  Brooklyn is a very forgiving place.  Unfortunately Hollywood is not so forgiving, unless you are a morally bankrupt actor or actress.  If you were a simple ballplayer back in 1947, you get branded for life, even if the rest of your life's work tells otherwise.