Baseball legend Reggie Jackson delivers powerful recount of living through Jim Crow

Baseball legend Reggie Jackson delivered a painful and emotional recount of what it was like playing in the South in the waning years of Jim Crow during commentary on Fox Sports.

Jackson, a Hall of Famer who played for the Athletics, Orioles, Yankees, and Angels in a career spanning from 1967-1987, was commentating for a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. He explained what he was subject to the last time he was at that stadium, just a few years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law.

He had just been asked what it was like to be back on the field, in the context of having played there with a legendary team.

"Alex, when people ask me a question like that, it's like, coming back here is not easy," said Jackson. "The racism that I played here, when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled — fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody."

"People said to me today — I spoke and they said, 'You think you're a better person, you think you won when you played here and conquered?' I said, you know, I would never want to do it again," he continued. "I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, the n----- can't eat here. I would go to a hotel and they say, the n----- can't stay here. We went to Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome-home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word. 'He can't come in here.' Finley marched the whole team out, finally they let me in there, he said, 'We're going to go the diner and eat hamburgers. We'll go where we're wanted.'"

"Fortunately, I had a manager in Johnny McNamara that, if I couldn't eat in a place, nobody would eat," said Jackson. "We'd get food to travel. If I couldn't stay at a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay. Had it not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudi — I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

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Watch the video below or at the link here. The clip contains graphic scenes and language.