Hty 400 presentation

Negro League Baseball

Civil Rights Onlooker/Participant

Or

Separate Entity

“If We Can Stop Bullets Why Not Balls”

Pre-1920 Late 1800’s (post civil

war) Blacks and whites played together on baseball teams

Early 1880’s it became seen as a social stigma if a black man was on your team

Social stigma develops into an unwritten rule Post 1880’s in which no blacks may play on white teams.

This only means that they cannot play with, does not bar playing against. (I.E. Barnstorming)

1920 Andrew “Rube” Foster “Pitfalls in Baseball” Negro National League

www.baseballhalloffame.org

1921

Many teams left league Chicago American Giants only constant Tulsa Race Riots “No government can wave a magical wand and

take a race from bondage to citizenship in half a century.”

1922

NAACP Dyer Anti-lynching Bill Passed in H.O.R. “Congress, speaking for the American people, has

finally set the stamp of disapproval on mob murder.”

Downed in Senate

1923-1924

Eastern Colored League formed (1923) Many teams dismantled NNL losing money and players Negro League World Series formed NLWS and All Star Game become the basis of

East-West game (TBDL)

1923-1924 (cont.)

Tulsa makes news again! Martial Law Civil Rights History?! Nope just kidding…

1925-1932 Baseball

“Rube” was the “Glue” in 1925 rumblings of his managerial style prompted him to resign, realizing this would leave more work, owners simply shut up.

1927 saw “Rube” Foster admitted to a hospital for “losing his mind”

1925-1932 Baseball (cont.)

1930 “Rube” Foster dies of mental illness, with him ECL dies

1932 Having been without Foster for 5 years, NNL folds.

1932 Cum Posey Erected the East-West League, this league folded quicker then it’s inception

1925-1932 Civil Rights

A. Phillip Randolph, Sleeping Car Porters “Scottsboro” boys “In March 1931, nine young black males, aged 13 to 21, riding in an open freight

car through rural Alabama were jailed and put on trial after being accused of raping two white women”

“Powell v. Alabama” (1932) Legal Counsel

1925-1932 Sports

The all black New York Rens defeated the Original Celtics, in the first world basketball championship. (1932)

1933 “Gus” Greenlee Re-institutes the NNL Much like the East-West league the previous year

the end seemed near East-West game!!! Similar to modern day all star games, separated

geographically by East and West. Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore

Afro-American, and the Kansas City Call

1933 East-West Game

Inaugural game Satchel Paige 20,000 Fans Major League Owners present

1934

NFL adopts a “gentlemen’s agreement” much like MLB’s barring blacks from professional competition.

Joe Louis, becomes light-heavyweight champion in boxing

“They are, on the whole, better hitters than the Detroit Tigers”

1934 E-W Game

Some found it to not be prosperous, but a cash cow 20,882 viewed the game Estimated 4,000 fans were white Depression Era was hurting White Baseball, Black

baseball (E-W Game) Prospering

1935 E-W Game

27,000 fans attended Assumption… White fan base increased proportionally

1936 Other sports had interracial success… Jesse Owens (4 medals, contested WR)

NAACP put forth a lawsuit to end pay discrimination between Black and White teachers.

“I see no reason why Negroes should not be admitted to major league baseball. If it weren’t for them, where would America be in Hitler’s Olympics? There is no place for racial discrimination in the American national game” – New York Daily Mirror (w)

1936 (cont)

“…In the interest of fair play and sportsmanship, we must wipe out this Jim-crowism and allow Negro ball players of ability on big league teams…There is no place for racial discrimination in the American plan of fair play and sportsmanship.”

1936 E-W Game

30,000 attended Satchel Paige the biggest drawing power again With arguments arising from the Olympics the

baseball integration issue became very hot

1937

Joe Louis becomes the Heavyweight Boxing champion in front of 45,000 people

NAACP, begins rallying support for baseball integration through newspapers

First direct connection to CRM

1937 E-W Game

No less then 20,000 Decline from previous year, but number still does

not dip below 20,000

1938 (Damn Yankees)

Jake Powell Utility outfielder for Yankees is recorded in interview as making racist remarks

He states that his off-season activities include “cracking niggers over the head” as a police officer

Powell suspended 10 day

1938 E-W Game

30,000 view the game White newspapers start to compliment the black

players in articles even dubbing them superior in some ways

1939

All but one major league stadium had integrated their seating.

Two black papers began interviewing MLB execs about their ideas on integration

Many replied they were not unwilling to accept the talent that the NL’s could offer.

1939 E-W Game

Joe Louis threw out the first pitch 40,000 (a record at that time) viewed the game Even more heard the game over the radio for the

first time (in the New Orleans area) A second E-W game was played in Yankee

Stadium (12-17,000 attended, comparable to the first Chicago crowd)

1940 E-W Game

No Satchel Paige Only 25,000 in attendance

1941

NAACP protested segregated military units Executive Order by President Roosevelt is issued,

banning “discrimination in war facilities and military training camps.”

Pearl Harbor ambushed

1941 E-W Game

Satchel Paige returned 50,000+ attended, many were turned away (exact

number unknown)

1942 “Can you read, Judge Landis?” Campaign “…Negroes are not barred from organized baseball by the

commission and have never been since the 21 years I have served. There is no rule in organized baseball prohibiting their participation to my knowledge…”

Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland arrive unexpectedly at Chicago White Sox training camp asking for tryouts…nothing came of it.

1942 E-W Game

48,000+ Attended, with thousands more again being turned away.

Same teams played an Army-Navy relief fundraiser, raising nearly nine thousand and five hundred dollars

1943 E-W Game Satchel Paige still playing 51,000 in attendance Avg. of 49,000 fans per game over three years

prompted one Black Sportswriter to say “…This is not only the biggest Negro sports event, but the largest proposition in the nation from the point of view of patron interest to the extent of paying an admission price…”

1944

Judge Landis Dies Satchel Paige refuses to play in E-W game over

monetary dispute

E-W Game sees 50,000 in attendance

1945 NAACP helps to initiate the passage of the Fair

Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) End Jim Crow in Baseball Committee is formed as a result New league formed by Greenlee, and Branch Rickey

called the “United States League” this league folded in less then a year

Branch Rickey signs Jackie Robinson to the Montreal Royals, the farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers

The East-West game would continue on until 1953, eight years after the signing of Jackie Robinson.

Eventually the Major leagues would be fully integrated, and it was every baseball player for himself, to find his way on to a Major league

roster.

My Conclusion…

The End