A History of the Negro LeaguesZayir Malik

Pre-Negro Leagues

September 28, 1860 witnessed the first beginning of black baseball as two black teams played against each other. Within a decade, black teams were playing white teams, but were being denied the right to join the National Association of Base Ball Players.

Soon after the black team emerged victorious in the first exhibition between a black ball club, the Pythian Club, and a white one, the City Items, the owner of the Pythain Club was murdered. His name was Octavius Catto, and because his movement that tried to desegregate the game offended whites, he was killed in 1871. Despite the anti-integration sentiment that was so strong at the time, some blacks succeeded in joining white clubs. The first to do this was Bud Fowler, who joined a professional white club in 1878. Six years later in 1884, Moses “Fleetwood” Walker became the first black ballplayer to join a major league (the American Association).

BUD FOWLER FLEETWOOD WALKER

In 1885 the first professional black baseball team was created (the Cuban Giants). The team was called “Cuban” because that name would ease the tension between races as opposed to if they had adopted a city name that already had a white club. In the same year, the first all-black league, the Southern League of Base

Ballists, was formed.

Professional Negro Leagues

The Cuban Giants in 1887

Two years later, one of the most popular white players of the time, Adrian Cap Anson, refused to play against the New York Giants team because they were about to sign a black player. The creation of Negro leagues as well as the refusal of some whites to play with blacks solidified the separation between the two races. The final step toward separation came in the 1896 Supreme Court Case Plessy v Ferguson. This case authorized the “separate but equal” doctrine and led the major leagues to create an unofficial “Gentleman’s Agreement” by which no team would sign a black player.

After the creation of the first league, many others were created that never lasted very long. The first step toward integration occurred in the creation of one of these leagues in 1888, the Middle States League, which allowed two black teams to join an all white league; this league also disappeared quickly. The short lifespan of these leagues was due, in part, to the barnstorming technique of play. Following this method, black teams would travel to different cities and play exhibition games in front of small crowds to make money. With teams traveling around like this so much, it was hard for a consistent league to form.

The black players bounced from city to city without a real home

A steady league finallycame about in post-WWI America. Following the advice of Marcus Garvey, the head of a civil rights group called the UNIA, a man named Andrew “Rube” Foster decided that blacks should separate from whites and create their own communities. He followed this by creating the Negro National League in 1920 with 8 all-black teams and by forming the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs (imitating the NABBP). Rube Foster and his Chicago American Giants

Noticing the success of the NNL, white businessmen collaborated and created the Eastern Colored League with 6 teams, which came to rival the NNL. In 1924, the first Negro World Series was held between a team from the NNL and a team from the ECL. Sadly, Foster was committed to an insane asylum in 1927 and precipitated the downfall of both leagues by 1931, but they served as a model for the future.

Downfall and Revival

The first World Series was between the Kansas City Monarchs (NNL) and the Hilldale Club (ECL).

In 1933 a notorious gangster named Gus Greenlee, who had gotten interested in baseball because of his money laundering tactics, started the new Negro National League. Greenlee managed the league well under a constitution, and by 1942 he had revived the Negro World Series which pitted an NNL team against a Negro American League team.

Pamphlet from 1945 NLWS Gus Greenlee

In 1934, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the most dominant pitcher in the Negro Leagues, beat the Dizzy Dean All-Stars, a team composed of elite white professionals. This event set the wheels of integration in motion. Two years later a black athlete named Jessie Owens dominated the Olympics and brought 4 gold medals home. These events made people realize that the blacks were equally as talented as whites.

The Rise of the Black Ballplayer

As WWII started, many blacks migrated to the North for work in what is known as the Great Migration, and with the money they were getting, the Negro leagues saw a jump in attendance. With the increase population of African-Americans came an increase in their power. In response to A Philip Randolph’s threat to march on Washington, FDR issued executive order 8802 in 1941 which forbade discrimination in federal occupations. This order encouraged more migration to the North and made integration a federally endorsed idea.

Graph of blacks migrating from Alabama to go to the north.

A Philip Randolph

In 1943, the Pittsburgh Pirates tried to sign a black prodigy named Josh Gibson, but were denied the right to do so by the conservative Commissioner Landis. Gibson was considered to be one of the best players ever, and was one of the very select few to hit over .400 in a season. A year he was denied, Landis died and was replaced by a progressive commissioner who went by the name Albert “Happy” Chandler.

Josh Gibson

In 1945 the major leagues were ready to integrate, but they needed the right player to be the first. They created the Major League Commission on Baseball Integration and this commission narrowed the list down to three people: Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Don Newcombe.

Integration

Robinson

Newcombe

Campanella

In August of that year, the president and GM of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey, met with Robinson and yelled racial slurs at him to test his reaction to the daily verbal abuse he would receive. After passing this test, Robinson was signed to a minor league branch of the Dodgers on October 23. The next year Rickey signed four more blacks to the minor league branch.

Jackie Robinson signing a contract with Branch Rickey at his side

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson was brought up from the minors to play Major League Baseball. Not only was he an enormous symbolic influence, he was also a great player who was the the National League Rookie of the Year (1947), the NL MVP (1949), and NL Batting Champion (1949) awards. Soon after Robinson’s debut, other teams started integrating. Both the Cleveland Indians, who signed Larry Doby, and the St. Louis Browns, who signed Hank Thompson and Willard Brown, integrated that year.

Robinson stealing home

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