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The Ballad Of Eddie Klepp

from Letters In The Dirt by Chuck Brodsky

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about

Eddie Klepp (Klep) was the first white ballplayer to play in the Negro Leagues

lyrics

The war had finally ended and America had changed
It had beaten back the nazis but the Jim Crow laws remained
There was talk of staging marches & talk of civil rights
There was talk about a Negro playing baseball with the Whites

He walked into the clubhouse and the card players quit playing
Everybody stopped in the middle of whatever they were saying
It was just like when the sheriff walks into the saloon
He said, “My name is Eddie,” as he looked around the room

“This man’s here to play baseball,” the manager said to the team
“We’re all gonna have to live with this...aw, that’s not what I mean...
You know what I mean” - and they all did...it went without saying
The card players looked at their hands and they went on with their playing

They ran him off the field before a game in Birmingham one night
Made him sit up in the grandstand in the section marked “For Whites”
In his Cleveland Buckeyes uniform, it was a new twist on the law
The marshals kept their eyes on him and the hecklers ate him raw

Eddie Klep, he should’ve run the bases in reverse
A White man in the Negro Leagues, that had to be a first
He could not ride the same busses, or stay in the same motels
He could not eat in the same restaurants, you couldn’t have mixed clientele

So while Jackie played for Brooklyn and wore the Dodger Blue
Eddie crossed the color line, the one without a queue
A White man in the Negro Leagues, might as well have been a Jew
Now you mention the name of Eddie Klep and most everyone says, “Who?”

credits

from Letters In The Dirt, released February 1, 1996

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Chuck Brodsky Asheville, North Carolina

See bio at www.chuckbrodsky.com/bio. If you'd like to support me further, you can do so through my paypal address - chuck@chuckbrodsky.com. Thanks.

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