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May 09, 2007

Attention Braves: You Need More African-American Players

Members of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition recently met with Atlanta Braves GM John Schuerholz to discuss the lack of African-American players on the their roster. The recent addition of Willie Harris to the roster brings the number of African-Americans on the Braves' roster to one. Reacting to the addition of Harris to the roster, Joe Beasley, Southern Regional Director for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said:

"You slipped down to nothing, now you've got one, we expect it to start going up higher," Beasley said was the sentiment he voiced in the meeting. "We want to see incrementally it move back up, rather than moving down. There was an openness on [Schuerholz's] part to talk and to be in dialogue and hopefully be in partnership in trying to make sure that it happens. He was very nice, a gentleman. I'm going to hold him to his word to work with us and move those numbers back up to a respectable level."

My thoughts on this story:

1. Rainbow/PUSH's offer to "work with" Schuerholz to "move those numbers back up to a respectable level" was sweet. I didn't know Rainbow/PUSH was in the player developm