KINGS AND PAWNS is the untold story of sports and fame, Black America, and the promise of integration through the Cold War lens of two transformative events. The first occurred on July 18, 1949 in Washington, D.C., when a reluctant Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball star who integrated the game, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to discredit Paul Robeson, the legendary athlete, baritone and actor --- himself once the most famous Black man in America. The testimony would be a defining moment in Robinson’s life and contribute heavily to the destruction of his iconic reputation in the eyes of America. The second occurred on June 12, 1956, when a battered, defiant Robeson --- prohibited from leaving the United States --- faced off in a final showdown with HUAC in the same setting that Robinson appeared in seven years earlier.

Few names in the history of baseball evoke the excellence and dynamism that Rickey Henderson’s does. He holds the record for the most stolen bases in a single game, and he’s scored more runs than any player ever. But perhaps even more than his prowess on the field, Henderson’s is a story of Oakland, California, the town that gave rise to so many legendary athletes like him. And it’s a story of a sea change in sports, when athletes gained celebrity status and Black players finally earned equitable salaries. Now, in the hands of critically acclaimed sportswriter and culture critic Howard Bryant, one of baseball’s greatest and most original stars finally gets his due.

Based on meticulous research and interviews with former teammates, family, two former presidents, and Aaron himself, THE LAST HERO chronicles Aaron’s childhood in segregated Alabama, his brief stardom in the Negro Leagues, his complicated relationship with celebrity and his historic rivalry with Willie Mays --- all culminating in the defining event of his life: his shattering of Babe Ruth’s all-time home-run record.