Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story

In 1955, when racial segregation defined the South, two groups of twelve-year-old boys stepped onto a baseball field in a non-violent act of cultural defiance that would change the course of history. Jackie Robinson had broken the Major League color barrier eight years earlier, but segregation still prevailed. Our future hinged upon local Southern communities to either embrace Robinson’s pioneering efforts, to redouble its longstanding commitment to segregation, or to remain quietly complicit in a system of racial inequality. Florida’s 1955 Little League State Championship represents a shining moment in our nation’s history when children led us all toward a better way. In one of the first integrated Little League games in the South, the all-Black Pensacola Jaycees and the all-White Orlando Kiwanis moved beyond fears, threats and the unknown to break with tradition and show the world what was possible. More than 60 years later, team captains Will Preyer (Pensacola) and Stewart Hall (Orlando) embark on personal journeys back to the game 1955 and find that the forgotten event becomes a bridge to embracing the turbulence of today’s social landscape. In addition to interviews with surviving members of the 1955 Pensacola Jaycees and Orlando Kiwanis, the film includes personal conversations with Major League Baseball and Civil Rights icons Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, Jr., Gary Sheffield, Davey Johnson and Ambassador Andrew Young who offer insight linking the past, the present, baseball and human dignity.