Must be pretty comfortable to say that in this day and age. Did you ever actively opposed racism? I have, more than once, but I have also failed to do so when I was in a segregated high school and 5 years later when I was in Korea.
I left out of my OP that I am fine with John Henry changing the name of Yawkey Way and the support he is getting from Boston. Times and attitudes have changed for the better and changing that name is great way to show it.
And this. I love the story of what Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson did. I even like that both served in the Army--Rickey in WW I and Robinson in WW II (he never deployed but through no fault of his own--a story itself). Both were truly heroic. Ken Burns was right to make the integration of MLB a centerpiece of his series on Baseball. I believe it truly helped this country and made desegregation easier--beginning in 1948 with the desegregation of the armed services and then Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954. If we now vilify Tom Yawkey for not doing the same thing Rickey did--at least, not for 12 years--doesn't that diminish that mighty deed of 1947?
By the way, I also agree there were lots of people in the 1940's who weren't racist. In 1939 Marian Anderson, the great African-American contralto had been touring mostly in Europe because it was easier then trying to get a venue here in the States. But then Sol Hurok booked Constitution Hall in DC. Unfortunately, the DAR owned the Hall and chose to abide by the segregated policies of DC and refused to let Marian sing. Eleanor Roosevelt, a member of the DAR, promptly resigned from the DAR and thousands of American women--DAR members-- joined her. Hurok moved the concert to the Lincoln Memorial where Marian sang to 75,000 people, black and white, and millions on the radio. Three years later Marian was invited by Constitution Hall to sing there as a benefit for the Red Cross, and she was very happy to do so.