Nearly everyone involved with the Watergate saga has been scrutinized, except one: night watchman Frank Wills. On the evening of June 17, 1972, the 24-year-old security guard was on duty at the Watergate Office Building when he detected a break-in. A high school dropout with only a few hours of formal security training, Wills alerted the police who caught five burglars, ultimately igniting a national political scandal that ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Through exhaustive research and numerous interviews, the story of America's most famous night watchman is told. The only African American connected with the Watergate affair, Wills enjoyed a brief moment in the limelight but was unable to cope with his newfound fame and lived the remainder of his life in obscurity and poverty.

Watergate's Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night Watchman

Biographies & Memoirs

Henig, Adam

Community & Culture

McFarland

In 1961, when the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida, for spring training, neither team had any idea that a feisty physician was about to turn its world upside down. To Major League Baseball, Dr. Ralph Wimbish was just a black homeowner able to house the team's African American ball players, who were segregated from their white teammates-except on the diamond-during spring training. The laws in Florida, like the rest of the South, were dictated by Jim Crow. Major League Baseball had no plans to upend it. Dr. Wimbish had other ideas. Drawing on personal interviews, newspaper accounts, archival documents, and memoirs, Adam Henig has written a story that New York Post sports columnist Mike Vacarro and Tampa Bay Times' Jon Wilson called "a must read!" A book for baseball enthusiasts that goes beyond the game, Baseball Under Siege (formerly titled Under One Roof) is an unforgettable tale of a little-known civil rights activist who risked it all to achieve racial justice in his city, in his state, and in America's favorite pastime.

Baseball Under Siege: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor's Battle to Integrate Spring Training

Sports & Outdoors

Baseball

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Jackie Robinson may have smashed Major League Baseball's color ceiling in 1947, but segregation in the sport had not been entirely eliminated. The pre-season ritual of spring training in Florida remained racially restrictive. Black players could not room, eat, or socialize with their white teammates. The only time teams were fully together? On the diamond. By 1961, pressure mounted for complete integration. Despite demands from the influential black newspaper columnist Wendell Smith, it appeared another year would pass dictated by Jim Crow policies. Then, two weeks before players reported to spring training, Dr. Ralph Wimbish announced that it was time for a change. The feisty, forty-year-old black physician from St. Petersburg was known locally for his central role in the integration of the city's schools, beaches, and lunch counters. Major League Baseball, however, wasn't exactly a five and dime operation; it was the economic lifeblood of St. Pete and for most of the other host cities in Florida. Drawing on personal interviews, newspaper accounts, archival documents, and memoirs, Adam Henig painstakingly etches a portrait of the troubled era and weaves into it an unforgettable tale of a little-known civil rights activist who risked it all to achieve racial justice.

Under One Roof: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor's Battle to Integrate Spring Training

History

Americas

Wise Ink Creative Publishing

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Books by Henig, Adam