More than 40 years before the Civil Rights Act was passed into law, the Montgomery Grey Sox were fighting for equality on the ballfields of the Negro Southern League, while Black residents of Alabama endured Jim Crow segregation and were denied equal access to accommodations, schools, public services and political representation.

The Negro Southern League was founded by Tom Wilson in 1920, in the same year that Rube Foster created the Negro National League, which is generally regarded as the first organized professional Negro Baseball League.

The Montgomery Grey Sox were a founding member of the Negro Southern League in 1920. Most of the team’s 13-year history was spent as a member of the Negro Southern League.

While American society remained segregated, Negro League Baseball in places like Alabama created an opportunity for Black players, franchise owners and fans to strengthen their community, enhance its culture and provide a sense of dignity through participation and achievement in the country’s National Pastime, paving the way for inclusion in other aspects of society.

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While the arrival of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby as the first Black players in the National and American League garnered the lion’s share of attention regarding the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947, there were others that advanced the collective effort more anonymously.

Four months after Jackie made his historic racial barrier breaking debut, Dan Bankhead, became Major League Baseball’s first Black pitcher as well as Robinson’s teammate and roommate with the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 26, 1947, becoming the Dodgers second Black player and just the fifth Black player to integrate the major leagues.

Bankhead came from a family of ballplayers; his father was an accomplished first baseman in the Cotton Belt League, older brother Sam was a star Negro Leagues shortstop for nearly 20 years and was the first Black manager in organized baseball with the Farnham, Quebec team of the Provincial League in 1951.

During parts of five seasons from 1940-1944 with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League, Bankhead compiled a 15-3 record with a 2.65 ERA in 153 innings. After missing the entire 1945 season while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Bankhead signed with the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro National League appearing in eight games over parts of two seasons in 1946 and 1947.

With the Dodgers in the throes of the 1947 National League pennant race and the team in dire need of starting pitching, at the urging of scouts Clyde Sukeforth and George Sisler, general manager and president Branch Rickey flew to Memphis to see Bankhead pitch for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro American League on August 23, 1947. Three days later Bankhead was standing on the pitcher’s mound in a Dodgers uniform at Ebbets Field.

According to Rickey biographer Lee Lowenfish, Rickey and Sisler traveled to Memphis to observe Dan Bankhead On August 22. The next day Bankhead struck out 11 Birmingham Black Barons bringing his season total to 124 with 11 wins and 5 losses. Rickey later announced that the pitcher had been purchased from the Red Sox for $15,000.

In his inauspicious debut, Bankhead was tagged for eight runs on 10 hits by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 3.1 innings, pitching in relief. On the bright side Bankhead became one of a select few players to hit a home run in their first major league at bat, connecting for a solo blast off Pirates hurler Fritz Ostermueller in the bottom of the second inning.

In parts of three seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bankhead posted a 905 record with a 6.52 ERA in 52 games. The book on Bankhead was that he lacked control of the strike zone and was afraid to pitch hitters inside. Negro Leagues veteran player, coach and historian Buck O’Neil explained this in front of writer Joe Posnanski — “See, here’s what I always heard. Dan was scared to death that he was going to hit a white boy with a pitch. He thought there might be some sort of riot if he did it.”

While Bankhead’s time in the major leagues may not have been as successful as his Negro Leagues career, he played a significant role in the integration of major league baseball paving the way for those who followed.

Larry Doby became the American League's first African American player, debuting with the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947, just 11 weeks after Robinson. Doby was the first player to advance directly from the Negro Leagues to the Majors. After seeing very limited action in his half season, he joined the team in Tucson in the spring of '48, and upon arrival, he was informed that he would not be allowed to stay with his teammates at the Santa Rita hotel.

The Indians played home exhibition games at Randolph Municipal Baseball Park, and while Tucson may have been more hospitable than Florida, segregation was still prevalent in the region at the time.

"At Tucson, I discovered, the bleachers weren't segregated, but the hotel was. We weren't able to talk the management into allowing Larry to stay with us his first year, although we did make it clear -- and they agreed -- that in the future, they would take all of our players, regardless of race, creed or previous condition of servitude," wrote Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, in his book Veeck as in Wreck.

Doby later recalled that African American players weren't allowed to stay with the team until 1954. In the meantime, he lived with the family of Chester Willis, the African American foreman of the company that supplied the Santa Rita with its clean sheets and towels, at his home in Tucson's Dunbar School District, where the city's African American children attended a segregated school.

In his first full season with Cleveland, Doby was instrumental to the team's success as the Indians won the 1948 World Series. Doby's .318 batting average in the World Series was the highest among Cleveland's starters, and he hit a game-winning home run in the team's 2-1 Game 4 victory.

A photograph of Doby and starting pitcher Steve Gromek hugging each other in the locker room after the game appeared on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer the next day and would become an iconic image.

"That picture of Gromek and Doby has unmistakable flesh and blood cheeks pressed close together, brawny arms tightly clasped, equally wide grins," wrote columnist Marjorie Mackenzie for the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper. "The chief message of the Doby-Gromek picture is acceptance."

This image, asserted Mackenzie, "is capable of washing away with equal skill, long pent-up hatred in the hearts of men and the beginning of confusion in the minds of small boys."

Doby remained eternally aware of the photo's social significance.

"The picture finally showed a moment of a man showing his feelings for me," he said. "But the picture is not just about me. It shows what feelings should be, regardless of the differences among people. And it shows what feelings should be in all of life, not just in sports. I think enlightenment can come from such a picture."

Doby spent eight spring seasons with the Indians in Tucson from 1948-55 and returned in '58 after spending 1956-57 with the Chicago White Sox. When his playing days were through, Doby worked in numerous capacities as a scout and coach before becoming the Major League's second black manager, following Frank Robinson.