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White Sox to host Rangers in Civil Rights Game

White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has long been a champion of equal opportunity.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Reinsdorf had the opportunity to watch the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson break major-league baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

In 2000, Reinsdorf hired Kenny Williams as general manager. Williams was the third African-American to hold the position in major-league history. From 2001-03, Williams and Jerry Manuel worked as the first African-American GM/manager duo in baseball history.

And in 2004, Ozzie Guillen returned to the White Sox and became the first Venezuelan manager in history.

Fittingly, MLB announced Tuesday the White Sox will host this season’s Civil Rights Game on Aug. 24. The Texas Rangers are the Sox’ opponent at U.S. Cellular Field.

“It is an honor and privilege for the White Sox and the city of Chicago to host major-league baseball’s Civil Rights Game,” Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Just as baseball had an indelible impact on the civil rights movement, the game has brought together generations of Chicagoans behind figures such Ted ‘Double Duty’ Radcliffe, Minnie Minoso, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Larry Doby, Harold Baines and Frank Thomas.”

This will be the seventh Civil Rights Game, which started as an exhibition.

The White Sox played the New York Mets at Memphis in the second Civil Rights Game, on March 29, 2008.

The Sox played again in 2009, beating the Reds in Cincinnati during the regular season.

In addition to the Civil Rights Game being held at U.S. Cellular Field, the MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon, Baseball and the Civil Rights Movement Roundtable Discussion and a youth baseball and softball clinic will all take place throughout that weekend.

“As a former player and manager who came up in the middle of the civil rights movement, I have personally witnessed baseball’s role in advancing equal rights for all,” said Frank Robinson, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball development.

“Together with the White Sox, we look forward to celebrating the era that has helped transform our country’s past, present and future.”

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