The Chosen City

This is the story of an audacious owner, two talented Black ballplayers, and a small city in New Hampshire.
Together, they undid almost six decades of injustice.

In the spring of 1946, Brooklyn Dodgers owner and General Manager Branch Rickey signed African American players Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. Rickey’s signing of the two players has been largely overlooked because Jackie Robinson had been signed just several months before. But Robinson played in Montreal, Canada in 1946 while Campanella and Newcombe were assigned to play in Nashua, New Hampshire. This meant Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe became the first Black players since 1887 to play on a professional baseball team in the United States. Just as importantly the Nashua Dodgers became the first United States-based team in organized baseball to employ Black players in the twentieth century. This is the story of how the owner, the players, and the city made baseball history together.