The History Book Club discussion

This thread was suggested by Jill and will focus on the Negro Leagues in Baseball prior to desegration. Please feel free to add books and information related to this topic.

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans.

The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues."

In 1885 the Cuban Giants formed the first black professional baseball team.

The first league, the National Colored Base Ball League, failed in 1887 after only two weeks owing to low attendance. The Negro American League of 1951 is considered the last major league season and the last professional club, the Indianapolis Clowns, operated amusingly rather than competitively from the mid-1960s to 1980s.

Because blacks were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues, they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s.

The first known baseball game between two named black teams was held on September 28, 1860, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Weeksville of New York beat the Colored Union Club 11–0.

In 1862, a newspaper reporter looking for a game between two white teams stumbled upon a game between black teams and covered it for his paper. At the time, baseball was commonly deemed recreation around which social gatherings were held.

Immediately after the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and during the Reconstruction period that followed, a black baseball scene formed in the East and Mid-Atlantic states.

Comprising mainly ex-soldiers and promoted by some well-known black officers, teams such as the Jamaica Monitor Club, Albany Bachelors, Philadelphia Excelsiors and Chicago Uniques started playing each other and any other team that would play against them.

By the end of the 1860s, the black baseball mecca was Philadelphia, which had an African-American population of 22,000.

Two former cricket players, James H. Francis and Francis Wood, formed the Pythian Base Ball Club. They played in Camden, New Jersey, at the landing of the Federal Street Ferry, because it was difficult to get permits for black baseball games in the city. Octavius Catto, the promoter of the Pythians, decided to apply for membership in the National Association of Base Ball Players, normally a matter of sending delegates to the annual convention; beyond that, a formality.

At the end of the 1867 season "the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with a black player."

In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation, with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other but white teams as well. "Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent 'semipro' clubs."

Source: Wikipedia

Full Article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_le...

I see that there is a baseball topic but I wonder if a sub-topic on the Negro Leagues would be appropriate. There were so many great players in that League before desegregation opened up the sport. There are many books dealing with this time period, one being:
by Kadir Nelson

Another worthwhile book is:

byTimothy Gay (no photo).

Great adds, Jill, thanks!

The Negro League of professional baseball had not only some very talented players but was a major economic success for the black community prior to integration.

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution

by Neil Lanctot

Synopsis
The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.
This book presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents, Lanctot consulted virtually every sports page of every black newspaper located in a league city. He then conducted interviews with former players and scrutinized existing financial, court, and federal records. Through his efforts, Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.

There is a Negro League museum in Kansas City, KS which is quite interesting

I didn't know that, Naomi. It has got to be interesting since many of the players in that league should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Canton, OH. Thanks for the tip.

Here is a an interesting biography due out this summer.

George Altman: My Baseball Journey from the Negro Leagues to the Majors and Beyond

George Tiny Altman

Synopsis
George Altman grew up in the segregated South but through a mix of timing and opportunity was able to participate in the sport at more levels of competition than perhaps anyone else who has ever played the game, starting in the 1940s and concluding in the 1970s.

Not only did Altman play baseball at all of the usual kids’ levels, he played college baseball at Tennessee State University, played for the Kansas City Monarchs during the waning days of the Negro Leagues, played for the U.S. Army in service competition, played winter league ball in Cuba and Panama, spent nine years in the majors with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets as a two-time All-Star outfielder, and then culminated his remarkable career by playing in Japan where he was a regular All-Star. For Altman, it was a case of "Have bat, will travel." When it comes to baseball, Altman has seen it all and he offers illuminating observations about teams, fans and the game as he journeyed around the world to play it.

Willie Mays is one of the greats of baseball. This book traces his rise from a 16 year old in the Negro Leagues to an icon and Hall of Fame member.


Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend

by John Klima (no photo)

Synopsis:

Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is one of baseball's endearing greats, a tremendously talented and charismatic center fielder who hit 660 career homeruns, collected 3,283 hits, knocked in 1,903 runs, won 12 Gold Glove Awards and appeared in 24 All-Star games. But before Mays was the "Say Hey Kid", he was just a boy. Willie's Boys is the story of his remarkable 1948 rookie season with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, who took a risk on a raw but gifted 16-year-old and gave him the experience, confidence, and connections to escape Birmingham's segregation, navigate baseball's institutional racism, and sign with the New York Giants. Willie's Boys offers a character-rich narrative of the apprenticeship Mays had at the hands of a diverse group of savvy veterans who taught him the ways of the game and the world.

Another interesting look at the history of the Negro Baseball League which gave birth to some of baseball's enduring legends.

The Story of Negro League Baseball

by William Brashler (no photo)

Synopsis:

The author . . . chronicles not just the rise and demise of the Negro Leagues, but the history of African-Americans in baseball from the post-Civil War era to the 1950s. . . . Brashler perceptively analyzes the interlocking web of factors and circumstances that finally dismantled that barrier and pays fine tribute to the talent and character of Jackie Robinson.

It sure did - thank you Jill for this add.

You are welcome, Bentley. I find the subject fascinating, being a baseball fan.

If you are a baseball fan - I think you would like a movie that I just saw - it is called 42.

The personal trials and tribulations suffered by the players in the Negro League in the days of the Jim Crow laws.

Don't Let Anyone Take Your Joy Away: An Inside Look at Negro league Baseball and Its Legacy

by Stanley Glenn (no photo)

Synopsis:

In this personal history of the Negro Leagues, Stanley Glenn gives an intimate and in-depth look at the daily trials and tribulations of a Negro League Baseball player. With wisdom, wit and perspective, Glenn recalls the indignities he and his teammates suffered during the days of Jim Crow, a time when they were denied gas for their vehicles or even a decent place to stay as they went "barnstorming" around the country, playing against and alongside some of the greatest baseball players of all time. Glenn's story illuminates the strength and determination of black ball players. In spite of the forces against them, they persevered for love of the game. And despite the adversities these men faced, they enjoyed the journey and came away with treasured memories and lifelong friendships. Through his blend of humorous anecdotes, inspiring words of wisdom, and colorful imagery, Mr. Glenn wonderfully conveys the bittersweet paradox that was the Negro League Baseball experience.

The triumph of Minor League Baseball over the segregation of the South and an important seed in the flowering of the civil rights movement.

Brushing Back Jim Crow

by Bruce Adelson (no photo)

Synopsis

While Jackie Robinson is justly famous for breaking the color line in major league baseball in 1947, other young African American players, among them Hank Aaron, continued to struggle for acceptance on southern farm teams well into the 1960s. As Bruce Adelson writes, their presence in the South Atlantic, Carolina, and other minor leagues represented not only a quest for individual athletic achievement; simply by hitting, fielding, and signing autographs alongside their white teammates, African-American ballplayers helped to end segregation in the Jim Crow South.

In writing this book, Adelson interviewed dozens of athletes, managers, and sportswriters who witnessed this important but largely unrecognized front in the ongoing civil rights movement. When nineteen-year-old Percy Miller took the field for the Danville (Virginia) Leafs in 1951, his presence on the roster was not the result of altruism: the team's white owners saw attendance flagging and recognized the need for more African-American fans. Two years later, Hank Aaron and his two black teammates for the Milwaukee Braves' Jacksonville (Florida) farm team were regularly greeted by racial invective, even bottles and stones, on the road. And Ed Charles endured nine years of discrimination in the southern minor leagues before breaking into the majors and finally winning the World Series with the Mets in 1969.

Slowly, through the vehicle of baseball, these African Americans shattered Jim Crow restrictions and met the backlash against Brown v. Board of Education while simultaneously challenging long-held perceptions of racial inadequacy by performing on the field. Brushing Back Jim Crow weaves their firsthand accounts into a narrative that spans the long season of racism in the United States, gripping fans of history and baseball as surely as a pennant or a home run--race

A biography of one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, Satchell Paige.

by David A. Adler

Synoopsis:

Satchel Paige could throw a baseball like no one else. But when he began his career in the 1920s, even the best African American players were kept out of the major leagues. Paige rose to stardom in the Negro Baseball Leagues--and he waited for his chance to play in the "big show." Finally, at an age when most players retire, Paige proved that staying in the game pays off.
David A. Adler and Terry Widener, the award-winning team behind several acclaimed sports biographies, have created a powerful story about a talented athlete who just wouldn't give up. Satchel Paige is an inspired subject for baseball lovers, readers who are interested in African American history, and anyone who has held on to a dream.

This is a good book! It mixes the sport and societal influences of being a black athlete in the Jim Crow days.

The Baltimore Elite Giants: Sport and Society in the Age of Negro League Baseball

by Bob Luke(no photo)

Synopsis:

One of the best-known teams in the old Negro Leagues, the Elite Giants of Baltimore featured some of the outstanding African American players of the day. Sociologist and baseball writer Bob Luke narrates the untold story of the team and its interaction with the city and its people during the long years of segregation.

To convey a sense of the action on the field and the major events in the team’s history, Luke highlights important games, relives the standout performances of individual players, and discusses key decisions made by management. He introduces the team’s eventual major league stars: Roy Campanella, who went on to a ten-year Hall of Fame career with the Brooklyn Dodgers; Joe Black, the first African American pitcher to win a World Series game; and James "Junior" Gilliam, a player and coach with the Dodgers for twenty-five years. Luke also describes the often contentious relationship between the team and major league baseball before, during, and after the major leagues were integrated.

The Elite Giants did more than provide entertainment for Baltimore’s black residents; the team and its star players broke the color barrier in the major leagues, giving hope to an African American community still oppressed by Jim Crow. In recounting the history of the Elite Giants, Luke reveals how the team, its personalities, and its fans raised public awareness of the larger issues faced by blacks in segregation-era Baltimore.

An upcoming book:
Release date: March 16, 2015

The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nation's Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever

by David E Hubler (no photo)

Synopsis:

On a chilly Sunday, December 7, 1941, major league baseball’s owners gathered in Chicago for their annual winter meetings, just two months after one of baseball’s greatest seasons. For the owners, the attack on Pearl Harbor that morning was also an attack on baseball. They feared a complete shutdown of the coming 1942 season and worried about players they might lose to military service. But with the support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the national pastime continued.

The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nation’s Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever examines the impact of the war on the two teams in Washington, DC—the Nationals of the American League and the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues—as well as the impact of the war on major league baseball as a whole. Each chapter is devoted to a wartime year, beginning with 1941 and ending with the return of peacetime in 1946, including the exciting American League pennant races of 1942-1945. This account details how the strong friendship between FDR and Nationals team owner Clark Griffith kept the game alive throughout the war, despite numerous calls to shut it down; the constant uncertainties the game faced each season as the military draft, federal mandates, national rationing, and other wartime regulations affected the sport; and the Negro Leagues’ struggle for recognition, solvency, and integration.

In addition to recounting the Nationals’ and the Grays’ battles on and off the field during the war, this book looks beyond baseball and details the critical events that were taking place on the home front, such as the creation of the GI Bill, the internment of Japanese Americans, labor strikes, and the fight for racial equality. World War II buffs, Negro League historians, baseball enthusiasts, and fans of the present-day Washington Nationals will all find this book on wartime baseball a fascinating and informative read.

The first Negro League teams are featured in this interesting book.

The Coal Barons Played Cuban Giants: A History of Early Proessional Baseball in Pennsylvania

by Paul Browne (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Pennsylvania state leagues of the 1880s and 1890s rank among the most interesting minor leagues in the history of baseball. The rules were changing, the world around baseball, particularly the economy, was changing and things that would seem impossible in a later time were happening every year. These leagues had not only black players but also wholly black teams. They had great major leaguers--on their way up but also on the way back down. In fact, the greatest player of the age, surrounded by what would have been a major league all-star team only a few years before, played in a Pennsylvania minor league for almost a full season. The play was exciting, the players were exciting and the owners, managers and league politics were often more interesting than the games.

Out of the Shadows: African American Baseball from the Cuban Giants to Jackie Robinson

by William Kirwin(no photo)

Synopsis:

This diverse collection offers an enlightening look at African American baseball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Negro Leagues, and the turmoil surrounding the integration of baseball by Jackie Robinson and others. Influential figures such as the Negro League team owner Effa Manley, the writer Sol White, and the player Don Newcombe are explored, along with Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. The book features an introduction by NINE founder and editor Bill Kirwin. Represented as well are other respected baseball historians, including the late Jerry Malloy, considered by many to be the leading scholar on nineteenth-century black baseball. Out of the Shadows addresses such themes as the importance of baseball to the African American community, the personal hardships faced by early integrators Robinson and Newcombe, the influence of female owners on the Negro Leagues, and the early days of barnstorming before integration, thereby providing a balanced and engaging overview of African American baseball history.