Doris Grady Howell shares her days of glory in an all-African American girls softball league

Doris Grady Howell grew up on the east side of South Bend, Indiana, in the shadow of the University of Notre Dame.  As a sixteen-year-old, Doris's life took a significant turn when she joined Uncle Bill's All Girls Softball league. For the next twelve years, Doris and her teammates toured the Midwest—fierce competitors on the field while making history off it, including meeting and playing on the same diamond as legendary baseball player Satchel Paige. The team brought together young African American girls and women from different parts of the city who, because of geographic and intra-cultural differences, might not otherwise have known each other. They faced racial discrimination off the field as well, traveling the Midwest at a time of overt racial segregation. Despite this, the bonds they built as players continued onwards long after their moments on the field.  Today, the University of Notre Dame’s Foundry Field project seeks to resurrect a new community baseball diamond as well as histories of local teams. They learned about Ms. Howell’s story and, at age 100, gave her a phone call to learn about her incredible experience as an under-sung local legend.   This episode was produced by Caleb Matz from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend, and by George Garner from the Civil Rights Heritage Center.  Full transcript of this episode available here.   Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.  Title music, “History Repeats,” from Josh Woodward, used via CC-BY-4.0-DEED. Visit his website at https://www.joshwoodward.com. Additional music includes: “Sparks” by Chaël:http://chael-music.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaelmusic/ https://www.tiktok.com/@chael_music https://www.facebook.com/chaelmusicofficialhttps://www.youtube.com/@chaelofficialMusic promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ “Childhood” by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.auMusic promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/Creative Commons CC BY 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/