SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) Members of a team that was the focus of a civil rights struggle in South Carolina almost 50 years ago will be honored during this year's Little League Baseball World Series.

The men to be recognized played in the Cannon Street YMCA Little League in Charleston in 1955, the only South Carolina league with black players at the time. Because of that, the state's 61 other leagues refused to play the team.

Little League officials, however, said the other teams would not be allowed in the tournament if they refused to play the Cannon Street boys.

The rest of the state formed an alternative tournament, and the leagues formed their own program: Dixie Baseball for Boys. Little League lost hundreds of franchises as white leagues in the South left en-masse, officials said.

Cannon Street chose an all-star team that attended the Little League World Series, although officially they could not play because tournament rules required all advancing teams to have played and won the previous title.

Now officials plan to honor the all-star team during opening ceremonies of this year's tournament.

"There is no way to right the wrong perpetrated on the boys of the Cannon Street YMCA Little League team, just as there is no way to right the wrongs perpetrated throughout history on people because of their skin color," said Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball. "Little League will be honored to have the Canon Street team with us as our special guests."

Sixteen teams of 11- and 12-year-olds will take part in the Little League World Series from Aug. 16-25.

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