Negro League
The Negro Leagues were a series of professional baseball leagues that provided Black players a platform to showcase their talents during a time when they were barred from Major League Baseball due to racial discrimination. Established in the early 20th century, particularly flourishing between 1920 and 1948, these leagues became vital in fostering a sense of community and pride among African Americans. The first organized league was the Negro National League, founded in 1920, which was followed by the Eastern Colored League. These leagues not only included talented players, such as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, but also contributed to baseball innovations and the cultural landscape of the time.
Despite facing challenges like the Great Depression and eventual integration into Major League Baseball, the Negro Leagues played a crucial role in the fight against segregation. The efforts culminated in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, leading to increased integration within the sport. In 2020, Major League Baseball recognized the historical significance of the Negro Leagues by classifying them as major leagues, with their statistics incorporated into official records by 2024. This acknowledgment highlights the leagues' enduring impact on baseball and civil rights in the United States.
Negro League
The Negro Leagues provided Black players a venue to play professional baseball. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the leagues attracted vast crowds and were among the largest Black-owned businesses in the United States.
As professional baseball grew in popularity during the last half of the nineteenth century, an attempt was made to organize the various clubs around the country. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was formed to govern teams and establish rules of play. The NABBP’s constitution of 1867 specifically prohibited Black players, refusing to allow teams that included even one player who was not White. Although political pressure eventually led to the removal of the clause from the constitution, by 1887, many Major League Baseball team owners entered into “gentleman’s agreements” that barred African Americans and White Americans from playing baseball together. When the season began in 1890, there were no Black players on any minor or major league teams.
In response, Black players attempted to create their own leagues, building several different and unaffiliated Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948. In December 2020, it was announced by Major League Baseball (MLB) that these Negro Leagues would be classified as major leagues, and the statistics and players from those leagues were recognized in its official records in 2024.
The First Leagues
Hotel owners in Florida and New York formed the first paid, all-Black teams during the 1880s. The teams featured hotel employees who played for the entertainment of guests. One of the teams, the Cuban Giants, played a number of exhibition games against major and minor league clubs—a practice often called “barnstorming”—and was financially successful. A number of other barnstorming teams arose during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and followed the same model as the Giants.
Several attempts were made to create independent, all-Black leagues from the 1880s into the twentieth century. However, organizations such as the League of Colored Baseball Clubs and the Iron and Oil League failed, usually because of a lack of financial backing.
The First and Second Negro National Leagues
In 1920, Rube Foster, a former pitcher for the Cuban Giants, actively pursued the creation of a league of all-Black teams. The Negro National League was created in 1920 by owners of eight midwestern, all-Black baseball clubs. With the exception of the Kansas City Monarchs, all Negro National League teams had Black owners. The rival Eastern Colored League soon followed in 1922, and the two leagues agreed to an annual Negro League World Series. Increasing Black populations in urban areas and the support of Black-owned newspapers made the teams successful throughout the 1920s, but the leagues did not last long. Facing the tough economic climate of the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, both leagues were out of business by 1932.
Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, founded a second Negro National League in 1934, organizing seven existing all-Black clubs under the National Organization of Professional Baseball Clubs. Greenlee’s league improved on the model of the first Negro National League by adding fan promotions and banking on its star players. The second Negro National League boasted a number of celebrity players, and future National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, including Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Willard Brown, and Cool Papa Bell.
A second league created in 1937, the Negro American League, added to the Negro Leagues’ success. The existence of two leagues meant that both a World Series and, for the first time, an all-star game could be staged. The East-West All-Star Game was held annually at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Fans selected players by newspaper ballots, and the contests were wildly successful. A series of exhibition games against major league all-stars followed.
The End of the Negro Leagues
As the 1930s ended, many groups were calling for Black players to be integrated into major league teams. Numerous politicians, sportswriters, and labor unions believed that integrating baseball would lead to the end of segregation in other areas.
In 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey founded the United States Negro Baseball League with sole purpose of recruiting players to sign with Major League Baseball teams. Rickey eventually chose Jackie Robinson in 1946, signing him to the minor league Montreal Royals. Robinson was chosen for his talent, discipline, and because Ricky felt he could handle the pressure of becoming the first Black player on a Major League Baseball team in the twentieth century. Robinson played one year with the Royals and was called up to the majors in 1947, playing the full season with the Dodgers.
The Negro National League merged with the Negro American League in 1948 and continued through the 1950s. After Robinson signed with the Dodgers and more teams eventually featured Black players, the Negro Leagues failed to attract the press and fans it once had.
Impact
Negro League teams were the first to feature such innovations as feet-first slides, night games, and the hit-and-run, and a number of players were later inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Many baseball scholars agree that the level of talent seen on Black teams rivaled that of White teams. After Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, other major league teams followed. The Boston Red Sox were the last team to hire a Black player, finally signing Pumpsie Green to a contract in 1959. The Negro Leagues went a long way in the struggle to end segregation. Many civil rights leaders during the 1960’s pointed to the eventual integration of baseball as the harbinger of later civil rights successes.
In December 2020, the MLB announced that it was officially classifying the multiple Negro Leagues as major leagues. In 2024, Negro League statistics were incorporated into the MLB, which resulted in a number of records changing hands. Notably, Negro League player and Hall of Famer Josh Gibson became the MLB’s all-time batting leader, a position previously held by Ty Cobb.
Bibliography
Bryant, Howard. "MLB Can Add Negro Leagues to Official Records but Can Never Change What it Did to Black Players." ESPN, 18 Dec. 2020, www.espn.com/mlb/story/‗/id/30540089/mlb-add-negro-leagues-official-records-never-change-did-black-players. Accessed 21 Jan. 2021.
Heaphy, Leslie A. The Negro Leagues: 1869-1960. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003. Covers the Negro Leagues from the establishment of separate, racially defined baseball associations to the demise of the leagues, which was a result of integration in Major League Baseball.
Kepner, Tyler. "As MLB Changes Its Records, Josh Gibson, Not Ty Cobb, Is All-Time Batting Leader." The Athletic, 28 May 2024, www.nytimes.com/athletic/5525148/2024/05/28/mlb-negro-leagues-records-josh-gibson-ty-cobb/. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Lanctot, Neil. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2004. History of the Negro Leagues that includes interviews with former players and extensive research into the development and management of the leagues.
Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Seminal text on the history of the Negro Leagues that focuses on its central irony: its very existence was made possible by exclusion.