By Elizabeth Jones | Observer Contributor
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
Baseball, America’s favorite pastime, has a way of bringing people together. For Martha Ackmann, it connected her to a woman who may have been left by the wayside of history. That woman was Toni Stone.
The life of Toni Stone is the subject of Martha Ackmann’s book Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League which was discussed in a presentation at the Athol Public Library on March 23 supported by the Humanities Project at MWCC. As the title suggests, Ackmann detailed the struggle Stone faced throughout her life and career as an African American woman playing professional baseball.
Ackmann became interested in Stone’s life once she began brainstorming for her next book idea. Ackmann had settled on the subject of baseball, as she always loved it and played it throughout her life. When she began researching Stone after hearing her called the “female Jackie Robinson” by baseball historians.
However, Ackmann struggled to find information on Stone in all the usual places one would do research. When detailing this experience Ackmann said, “The lack of info had little to do with her as a player, but a hell of a lot to do with racism and sexism.” This did not stop Ackmann and she proceeded to get her information in a more personal way such as contacting people who knew Stone.
Stone, born Marcenia Lyle Stone( (1921-1996), not only faced racism that was commonplace in the 1940s to 1950s, but sexism from her teammates. In both her presentation and the book Ackmann told a story of situations where both of these discriminatory behaviors were shown to Stone. While Stone and her team played games in the Jim Crow South, they struggled to find places to stay at night that allowed African Americans which meant they usually stayed in boarding houses.
Ackmann explained that those running the boarding houses assumed the worse when they saw a large group of men with only one woman getting off the bus. Due to her teammates having prejudice against her because of her gender, none of them stood up for her and explained the situation. This scenario was just one of the many Ackmann told in her presentation.
When asked what about Toni Stone inspired her the most, Ackmann simply responded, “Her perseverance.”
Curveball is also being adapted for a theatrical release next year.
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