Negro League World Series, opening game Oct. 11, 1924, Kansas City, Mo. |
Bristol Base Ball Club, 1890
Homestead Grays at Forbes Field in 1913 |
Negro Leagues History, from the Negro Leagues Museum
Link also to the Negro Baseball Leagues e-Museum with resources for teachers and students.
In the 20 years after the Civil War, about 200 African American baseball teams were formed.
They mostly played each other, since only a few areas allowed interracial playing. African Americans began to play baseball in the late 1800s on military teams, college teams and company teams. They eventually found their way to professional teams with white players. Moses Fleetwood Walker and Bud Fowler were among the first to participate. However, racism and "Jim Crow" laws would force them from these teams by 1900
In 1890, the National Association of Baseball Players forbade African Americans from playing. This formally banned black teams from the organized leagues for 50 years.
1920 Detroit Stars |
Kansas City Monarchs, 1945 |
The Exclusion of African Americans from the National Association of Base Ball Players, Philadelphia, 1867
Baseball Primary Source Set, Middle Tennessee State University
Negro League Baseball Primary Source Set, Digital Public Library of America
Smithsonian Negro League Images
Ken Burns has a documentary, "Baseball: the Tenth Inning" that features information on African American baseball players. Link here for the PBS companion site.
For a short quiz, go to Baseball in Black and White
Baseball and Race in the United States, a lesson plan from the Gilder Lehman Institute of American History
Fleet Walker from Society for American Baseball Research
Click here for an ESPN article from April 19, 2013, on why African Americans are participating less in professional baseball.
Click here to watch a short youtube video on the decline of African Americans in baseball