National

America's Favorite Pastime from its beginnings in the 1840's has reflected the contradictions of our country. The all-American sport was deeply racist and segregated with Black players kept out of all white teams until 1946 when Jackie Robinson was hired by the Montreal Royals.

Black players, along with Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, played on their own teams and in the Negro League until 1959 when white owners of white teams wised- up and saw the stunning athletic abilities of the Black and Latin players. Because the owners wanted to win and because some of them saw the moral contradiction of making baseball the all-American sport yet excluding many Americans based on the color of their skin, baseball finally became imtegrated. With the courage of Jackie Robinson and the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson was hired by Rickey for the Brooklyn team.

This is the story of the Negro Leagues which were comprised of professional baseball teams of Black Americans and Latin Americans from the 1920's to the 1950's.

This discussion is moderated by Sandy Baird and features Tom Simon, Burlington Attorney, Baseball Historian, Member of the Society For Baseball Research and Ultimate Baseball Fan; Bill "Spaceman" Lee, former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, and the Montreal Expos, and the current pitcher for the Burlington Cardinals; and Karl Lindholm, Emeritus Dean of Advising and Assistant Professor of American Studies at Middlebury College and scholar and author regarding the Negro Leagues.

For more information about VICII: vicii.org

Rally calling on the Biden administration to cancel construction of Line 3 just as it revoked the permit for the KXL Pipeline, and major banks like Chase and TD Bank to stop funding the project.

The rally includes live music and food prepared by the People’s Kitchen as well as speakers from across Vermont who have returned home from Minnesota where they were working to STOP LINE 3.

This event is sponsored by: 350VT, Essex Resists, Extinction Rebellion VT, People’s Kitchen, Upper Valley Affinity Group, VT Interfaith Power and Light,
VT Peace and Justice Center and the Institute for Social Ecology.

WHAT IS LINE 3?

1. LINE 3 is a tar sands pipeline starting from First Nations territory in Alberta, Canada and finally traveling through more than 300 miles of Indigenous treaty land across Minnesota on its way east to the Enbridge refinery in Superior, Wisconsin.
2. The tar sands crude carried by LINE 3 is the filthiest, most corrosive and polluting oil there is.
3. LINE 3 is being built to carry more than 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude every day, making it comparable to the defunct KXL pipeline.
4. LINE 3 is being built by ENBRIDGE, the Canadian pipeline giant notorious for causing more severe pipeline accidents than any of its competitors in an industry famous for dangerous accidents.
5. In 2010, an ENBRIDGE pipeline spilled 840,000 gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River. The EPA reports that 160,000 gallons of the oil from this spill can never be recovered.
6. Pollution Control officials in Minnesota are now investigating spills of toxic pipeline drilling fluids into at least 28 waterways and wetlands along the LINE 3 route.
7. Construction of LINE 3 has destroyed and will continue to destroy sacred Indigenous sites and traditional wild rice harvest locations.
8. Dozens of Indigenous led LINE 3 Water Protectors have been arrested and held, often brutally, by county and municipal police paid by ENBRIDGE.
9. Man Camps that house pipeline crews are linked to drug crime, human trafficking and the disappearance and murder of Native women.
10. TD BANK is a major lender, making construction of LINE 3 possible. It is also the world’s 5th largest owner of ENBRIDGE shares.
11. ENBRIDGE owns 40% of both Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems, making it an active energy power right here in Vermont.

STOP LINE 3

Brian Peete, Montpelier Chief of Police

Gerritt Graff draws on his reporting experiences, and a distinctive body of work, which blends breaking news, national political reporting, and deep examinations of U.S. government institutions and latter 20th century American political history.