The Negro Leagues 1869 1960

At his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, former Negro League player Buck Leonard said, “Now, we in the Negro Leagues felt like we were contributing something to baseball, too, when we were playing.... We loved the game.... But we thought that we should have and could have made the major leagues.” The Negro Leagues had some of the best talent in baseball but from their earliest days the players were segregated from those leagues that received all the recognition. This history of the Negro Leagues begins with the second half of the 19th century and the early attempts by African American players to be allowed to play with white teammates, and progresses through the “Gentleman’s Agreement” in the 1890s which kept baseball segregated. The establishment of the first successful Negro League in 1920 is covered and various aspects of the game for the players discussed (lodgings, travel accommodations, families, difficulties because of race, off-season jobs, play and life in Latin America). In 1960, the Birmingham Black Barons went out of business and took the Negro Leagues with them. There are many stories of individual players, owners, umpires, and others involved with the Negro Leagues in the U.S. and Latin America, along with photos, appendices, notes, bibliography and index.

The Negro baseball leagues were a thriving sporting and cultural institution for African Americans from their founding in 1920 until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Rogosin's narrative pulls the veil off these "invisible men" and gives us a glorious chapter in American history.

For fans of Hidden Figures and Steve Sheinkin's Undefeated, Andrea Williams's Baseball's Leading Lady is the powerful true story of Effa Manley, the first and only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues--on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners. Here is the riveting true story of the woman at the center of the Black baseball world: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles. Elegant yet gutsy, she cultivated a powerhouse team. Yet just as her Eagles reached their pinnacle, so did calls to integrate baseball, a move that would all but extinguish the Negro Leagues. On and off the field, Effa hated to lose. She had devoted her life to Black empowerment--but in the battle for Black baseball, was the game rigged against her?

Though Satchel Paige lived into the early 1980s, much of our information about his life and especially his career is the stuff of anecdote. He is nevertheless a central figure--arguably the central figure--in our reconstructions of Negro Leagues history. This collection of papers from the 9th Annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference focuses on the celebrity of Satchel Paige and the team he is most closely associated with, the Kansas City Monarchs. Accounts of Paige's exploits are scrutinized and the effects of his fame, on both the contemporary perception of black baseball and its depiction in the years since, are discussed.

This baseball league that was made up of African American players and run by African American owners ushered in the biggest change in the history of baseball. In America during the early twentieth century, no part was safe from segregation, not even the country's national pastime, baseball. Despite their exodus from the Major Leagues because of the color of their skin, African American men still found a way to participate in the sport they loved. Author Varian Johnson shines a spotlight on the players, coaches, owners, and teams that dominated the Negro Leagues during the 1930s and 40s. Readers will learn about how phenomenal players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and of course, Jackie Robinson greatly changed the sport of baseball.

This work examines the historical significance of the state of New Jersey in the Negro League legacy, especially the black baseball players, teams, owners and managers, and their struggles against not just segregation, and their accomplishments. The book includes photographs, appendices (records of New Jersey Negro League teams, 1923–1948, and a chronology), notes, a bibliography of research sources, an annotated list of suggested further readings, and an index.

Painstakingly researched and documented, this volume is a comprehensive, year-by-year reference work giving important—yet often obscure—dates in Negro League history. From the Negro Leagues’ organized beginning in 1920 through their steep decline immediately after Jackie Robinson’s 1947 breaking of the color barrier, entries cover league meetings, noteworthy games, the commentary of columnists, and important events on and off the field. Controversies that defined the experience of black baseball organizers—such as player rights disputes, failure to adhere to league schedules and violations of league rules—are also included here.