Curt Flood
However, Gilbert made an impact earlier in his career, when as a minor-league teammate of outfielder Curt Flood in the Jim Crow South, he often brought food to Flood on the team bus. Because Flood was an African-American, he was legally prohibited from eating in whites-only, segregated restaurants. Gilbert later said, "Curt Flood mentioned in his autobiography that in all the years he played baseball there was one white boy from Knoxville, Tennessee that always treated him like a human — Buddy Gilbert. That broke my heart. That’s the nicest compliment I think I have ever had in my lifetime.”