| Detroit Free Press
Detroit Tigers’ George Lombard reflects on mother ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Tigers bench coach George Lombard’s mother, Posy, was a civil rights activist alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Her son shares story, Jan. 17, 2021.
Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press
George Lombard will never forget July 7, 2002. And he won’t forget his mother’s heroic accomplishments as a civil rights activist alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., either.
Recently traded to the Detroit Tigers, a 1-0 Sun-woo Kim pitch off Lombard’s bat carried to deep center field in the third inning at Fenway Park. It bounced off the cameraman’s leg and back onto the field, idling near Johnny Damon. A trainer retrieved the baseball, and the trainer’s wife “did a lot of artwork” before turning it over to Lombard, who gifted it to his maternal grandfather.
“I have the ball somewhere at my house,” Lombard, now 45, said Sunday. “The home run and the date, that was one proud moment for my grandfather and the Lombards.”
[ Why George Lombard left the Dodgers for Tigers’ bench coach job ]
George Francis Fabyan Lombard was 91 years old at the time of his grandson’s first home run in Boston; he died two years later at 93. He taught at Harvard Business School for 41 years, earning the esteemed role of senior dean. He raised his family, including his daughter (Lombard’s mother), Posy, in Massachusetts.
And Cape Cod Hospital — only 75 miles from Fenway Park — is where Lombard’s mother was taken after a fatal car crash. She died on Aug. 29, 1985; Lombard was nine years old. Posy never got to see Lombard become the Tigers’ bench coach, or win a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, or — 6,156 days after her death — crush that homer against the Red Sox.
“She was our sole parent at the time, really,” Lombard said. “My brother and I can remember our father moving in with us. We can remember being in the court and asking us, ‘Do you want to keep the last name Lombard or switch to Williams?’ Those are tough questions at a young age, doing things that normal kids didn’t have to do.”
TRENDING: Tigers’ farm system: Ranking the top-15 prospects entering 2021
Although Lombard didn’t get to spend a full decade with his mother, he attributes his personal growth to her. He was determined to learn more about her beliefs after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last summer. A white woman, Posy marched with King at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and dedicated herself to civil rights activism. She was arrested numerous times, including in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. She was twice arrested in Natchez, Mississippi, the city where she stared down Ku Klux Klan members.
“I realized how big of a hero that she was,” Lombard said. “Her story is so unique because she was white, and so many people can relate to that. When they think, ‘What can I do to help in this matter?’ You see the things, where she risked her life and made a difference.
“You think of Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King, with his birthday (Monday), and my mom lived such a short life and impacted so many people. With this story coming out, it still has a chance to change the mind and move so many people. We all have this opportunity to go out and help others, especially in search of equality.”
From 1967 to George Floyd: Detroit activists connect the dots to fight inequality
Lombard recently discovered 300-plus pages of FBI files on his mother. She was under heavy surveillance during her years of activism. That motivated him to make his difference by sharing her story. He used to despise speaking to large crowds, but help from leadership, life skills and mental training expert Lucas Jadin changed his life.
“What do you want people to know about you?” Jadin asked Lombard, during his first session in pursuit of becoming a better public speaker.
“The coolest thing about me is my mom’s story,” Lombard responded, without hesitation.
“I’m glad you said that,” Jadin said. “Because I really didn’t want you to say being a baseball player. That’s just something you’ve done.”
The training helped, and Lombard began telling his story. It only took him five minutes. A week later, he could speak about his mother’s history for 20 minutes. And then, he spoke to 150 high school athletic directors on a Zoom call in June. The event was set up by his son’s athletic director, Ira Childress, at Gulliver Prep in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Year in Pictures 2020: A fight for social justice in Michigan
The story of Lombard’s mother went viral after Floyd was killed in the streets of Minneapolis, when police officer Derek Chavin knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, 46 seconds, sparking nationwide protests about racial injustice.
It marked the birth of a new generation of activists.
“We can make a difference every day,” Lombard said. “It doesn’t have to be going out and marching in the civil rights movement. It could be as simple and helping out one of your teammates, helping out in the community, helping out a kid. We have to be more educated on the subject. And I, for one, need to be better. We need to be more educated, and that’s what I’m trying to take pride in doing.
“And here we are, over 50 years later, and we’re still fighting the same fight, which is a bit embarrassing. We all need to wake up and understand what’s happening.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.