Royal Treatment

Jackie Robinson, Montreal, and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Barrier

The story of Jackie Robinson’s prodigious talent, his courageous journey, and his influence on both the game of baseball and American society writ large has been told well and often. What hasn’t been told is the full story of his first season in the minor leagues in Montreal. In 1946, before moving up to the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson spent a season thrilling home crowds in a Canadian city with Major League aspirations. He played for the AAA Montreal Royals of the International League, leading the team to victory in the Junior World Series.

As it turned out, postwar Montreal was the ideal location for Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey’s “great experiment” to finally integrate America’s pastime. Although both Rickey and Robinson have rightly been at the center stage of this story, it was the masses of cheering Montrealers who first showed the world t