Blog #21 Fences Fishbowl Blog Discussion: Negro baseball League

Fences Fishbowl Research

2.  Negro baseball League

• African-Americans began to play baseball in the late 1800s
• In the nineteenth century (and before), blacks were prohibited from playing professional baseball in white major and minor leagues.
• Between the end of the Civil War and 1890, quite a number of African-Americans played alongside white athletes on minor league and major league teams during the period, although the original National Association of Base Ball Players, formed in 1867, had banned black athletes
• They formed their own baseball leagues, and the initial baseball game between two black teams was held in 1859, in the state of New York.
• The two teams were the Henson Baseball Club of Jamaica of Queens and the Unknowns of Brooklyn (defeated).
• By the late 1870s several African-American players were active on the rosters of white, minor league teams. Most of these players fell victim to regional prejudices and an unofficial color ban after brief stays with white teams, but some notable exceptions built long and solid careers in white professional baseball.
• Eventually found their way to professional teams with white players, however, racism and “Jim Crow” laws forced them from these teams. Thus, black players formed their own units, “barnstorming” around the country to play anyone who would challenge them.
•  In 1945, Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Jackie Robinson.
•  Robinson became the first African-American to play on a Major League team.
• While this historic event was a key moment in baseball and civil rights history, it prompted the decline of the Negro Leagues. The best black players were now recruited for the Major Leagues, and black fans followed.
• Integration of black and white players did not succeed until 1945.
• As World War II came to a close and the demands for social justice swelled throughout the country (bring down the color barrier). Not only had African-Americans proven themselves on the battlefield and seized an indisputable moral claim to an equal share in American life, the stars of the black baseball had proven their skills in venues like the East-West Classic and countless exhibition games against major league stars.
• By 1952 there were 150 black players in organized baseball, and the "cream of the crop" had been lured from Negro League rosters to the integrated minors and majors.

Works Cited

"Negro Leagues Baseball Museum." Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.

"Negro League History 101 - An Introduction To The Negro Leagues." Negro League History 101 - An Introduction To The Negro Leagues. The Negro League Baseball Shop, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2015.

"Negro League." History Net Where History Comes Alive World US History Online RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2015.

http://nlbm.com/s/history.htm

http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/history101.html

http://www.historynet.com/negro-league