The sport practiced institutionalized racism. That's the way it was. The fact that the Red Sox were last to integrate doesn't make their owner any more racist than Yankee ownership that integrated a whole 2 years earlier. BTW it was the Yankees continuing reluctance to bring in african american players while relying on their aging white stars throughout the 60's that made their dynasty crumble. The hiring of Dick O'Connell and the subsequent influx of black stars helped the Sox establish themselves as a contending team and surpass the Yankees.
No blacks in baseball was thought to be sound business practice at the time, because it was reflective of society. They didn't fail to integrate because they didn't like blacks. They didn't do it because they didn't think that their fan bases would tolerate it. Does that make it less evil? No, but it certainly spreads the blame to lots of people including Joe Fan. It's unfair to label Yawkey as a racist, because you don't know anything about the man. All you know is that he was an owner during a period of institutionalized racism. To conclude that he was an evil racist, is just an uninformed mob mentality. The uninformed mob mentality goes in the other direction as well. Cold blooded murderers like Che are held up by many as beacons for freedom, when he executed thousands of people without trial, and oh btw, he was a racist. That's not my opinion. That's in his own writings. Let's instead call a generous humanitarian like Tom Yawkey a racist.
Here's a fact about Yawkey. The Red Sox were not his main business. Based upon all reports, for several years, he was a neglectful owner who concentrated on his other businesses. He left the keys to the store in the hands of some good old boys, including Joe Cronin (funny that no one calls him a racist). They controlled the franchise and ran it into the ground. In the early 60's Yawkey turned more of his attention to the Sox. He gave the okay to sign the hottest prospect for the biggest signing bonus up to that time-- Yaz. He cleaned house and brought in Dick O'Connell who was eventually made GM. O'Connell probably signed more african american players than any GM in Red Sox history. The franchise turned the corner and returned to prominence. It was Yawkey who cleaned house.
By all accounts Yawkey was a drunk and an absentee owner throughout the 50's. I have never read an account from a player whether they were black or white that Yawkey was a racist. But by all means let's just label people based on circumstantial evidence and at best second and third hand accounts. While we are at it, let's label as racists whites who live in predominantly white neighborhoods and blacks who live in predominantly black neighborhoods. The circumstances would indicate that they are racist. Don't you think.
Maybe Yawkey was a racist. We don't know. There is no record of his beliefs about the issue. There are no first hand accounts of his actions or opinions in this regard. All we know is that he was an owner of a team in a business that was segregated. Unless we are willing to condemn every baseball fan during those years, every player, coach, owner and front office worker, it's a little unfair to paste that label on Tom Yawkey, who did more selfless charitable humanitarian work than almost everyone else combined from that era.