Pumpsie Green Breaks the Red Sox's Color Line

On July 21, 1959, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green entered a game against the Chicago White Sox as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in at shortstop, becoming the first Black player to appear for the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox lost 2–1.

The debut came more than twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and it made the Red Sox the last of the sixteen major league teams to field a Black player. Green had been a September call-up candidate for two years running before finally making the roster out of spring training in 1959.

Green played five major league seasons, four of them with Boston, primarily as a utility infielder, before finishing his career with the New York Mets.