Negro Leagues

I

Introduction

Negro Leagues, term that refers to organized baseball played by blacks in the United States during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, when blacks were barred from major league and minor league baseball. Negro League baseball provided popular entertainment in cities in the Eastern and Midwestern states and showcased some of the most talented players in baseball history.

II

Segregation in Baseball

Before the 20th century several predominantly white teams fielded black players. The first black player to become widely known was John Jackson. Born in 1858 in Fort Plain, New York, Jackson spent his childhood in Cooperstown, New York. For unknown reasons, he played baseball under the name John “Bud” Fowler. The earliest mention of Fowler as a player appeared in 1878, when he pitched for a team in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Fowler also played second base for several other primarily white minor league clubs during the 1870s and 1880s.

In 1883 manager Cap Anson of the Chicago White Stockings (later the Chicago Cubs) announced that he would not allow his team to play any team that had black players on its roster. When the White Stockings played Toledo, the team’s black catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker, was kept out of the starting lineup, although he joined the game later. In 1887 Anson carried out his threat, and a game with Walker and black pitching star George Stovey in the opposing team’s lineup was canceled. Other owners and managers later adopted Anson’s policy. Fleet Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the last black players in the major leagues for the next 60 years.

Although excluded from the major leagues, a handful of black players, including Fowler and Fleet Walker, continued to play in the International League, a step below the major leagues. In 1887, however, the directors of the International League voted six to four not to sign any more contracts with black players. Current players were allowed to remain on their team’s roster, but increasing abuse from fans, sportswriters, and opposing players soon forced them out of the league. Despite the discriminatory policy of the major leagues and the International League, at least 70 black athletes managed to find employment on integrated minor league teams before 1900. But by 1900 an unwritten “gentlemen’s agreement” among team owners excluded blacks from the minor leagues as well. The exclusion of blacks from major league and minor league baseball continued until 1947.

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III

Early Organization of the Negro Leagues

The first all-black teams likely formed in the North after the American Civil War ended in 1865. But in 1867, when a black team applied for admission to the National Association of Base Ball Players, an organization that preceded the major leagues, the club’s application was unanimously rejected. The committee’s decision barred “any club which may be composed of one or more colored persons.”

During the late 1800s black teams toured the United States, taking the field against one another and in exhibition games against amateur and professional white clubs. The black teams at first operated independently, without an organized league. In the 1910s a movement to establish a league of black ball clubs was led by Rube Foster, a star pitcher who became manager and then owner of the Chicago American Giants. Foster believed that an organized league was needed to stabilize team rosters (players jumped from team to team at that time), increase team revenues, schedule games, and arrange a championship at the end of the season.

In 1920 the owners of eight Midwestern teams formed the Negro National League (NNL). The NNL consisted of the Chicago (Illinois) Giants, the Chicago American Giants, the Dayton (Ohio) Marcos, the Detroit (Michigan) Stars, the Indianapolis (Indiana) ABCs, the Kansas City Monarchs (Missouri), the St. Louis (Missouri) Giants, and a traveling Cuban team called the Stars. Foster served as the league’s first president and secretary and worked to maintain competitive balance among NNL teams. During its ten years of existence, the NNL featured such players as Smokey Joe Williams, José Mendez, and Oscar Charleston. In 1923 six clubs formed the rival Eastern Colored League (ECL), which survived through the 1929 season. The pennant winners of the NNL and ECL met in season-ending World Series from 1924 through 1927.

Other teams, such as Pittsburgh’s Homestead Grays and Cincinnati’s Clowns (later the Indianapolis Clowns), remained independent during the 1920s. These teams barnstormed across the country, playing exhibition games against both white and black teams, amateur or professional. Barnstorming required endurance as well as skill: Touring teams rarely spent two days in the same town, and they often played two games in a day and then traveled overnight by bus to their next game.

IV

New Negro Leagues

Foster’s death in 1930 and the economic disruption of the Great Depression threatened the stability of the NNL in the 1930s. Without Foster’s leadership the league grew weaker, and some teams disbanded for economic reasons. In 1933 a new Negro National League formed under the leadership of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. By 1937 the new NNL was a six-team league based on the East Coast. At the same time, a new six-team Negro American League, which included the powerful Kansas City Monarchs, was formed in the Midwest. The champions of these two leagues played in a black World Series from 1937 until 1948. Greenlee also started a Negro Leagues all-star game in 1933. Known as the East-West Classic, the annual event was held in Chicago and quickly gained popularity as fans voted for their favorite players in polls taken by local black newspapers.

The Negro League style of play was exciting to watch and attracted thousands of fans. While major league teams relied on power and the home run, Negro League teams employed speed and such strategies as the hit-and-run, the bunt-and-run, and the steal. Pitchers in the Negro Leagues were famous for the many ways they could fool the batter. In addition to normal breaking pitches such as curve balls and sliders, their armory included spitballs and balls scuffed with emery boards, both of which made pitches suddenly change direction over the plate. They also threw hesitation pitches that disrupted hitters’ timing.

Despite the popularity of Negro League teams, the economic survival of many franchises depended on barnstorming. Although Northern cities had more money, the black population lived mainly in the South. Even during the regular season, teams based in the North traveled through the Southern states, where they drew large crowds. While touring, the team lived on the bus; it served as hotel, dining room, and locker room. The teams’ small traveling rosters required that many stars play more than one position. Pitcher “Double Duty” Radcliffe, for example, would often pitch the first game of a double header and catch the second; he also served as his team’s bus driver. Some players found themselves taking three or four positions during a series of games. Instead of resting during the off season, Negro League players traveled to Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic to play in winter leagues, winning fans in those countries as well. During the 1930s and 1940s the leagues produced many stars and future members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Roy Campanella, Judy Johnson, Buck O’Neill, Leon Day, Ray Dandridge, and Oscar Charleston.

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