Negro Leagues
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The Negro Leagues were various American professional baseball leagues whose teams consisted exclusively of black , mostly African-American players, and who were not part of the major leagues . The setting up their own leagues was the requirement laid down in the United States apartheid (racial segregation) necessary to entrenching separation of blacks and non-blacks in public places.
The first all-African American team that was professionally active was founded in Babylon, New York , in 1885 under the name Cuban Giants . The first Negro League in history was the National Colored Base Ball League, which was formed in 1887. It consisted of eight teams, but was disbanded after two weeks, as there was no interest from the audience. From 1920 onwards, seven more or less successful and long-lasting leagues were established, to which the term Negro Leagues refers in the narrower sense. In a broader sense, Negro Leagues are defined as all professional competitions, whether organized in a league or played by independent teams in individual games.
The longest-running franchise in the Negro Leagues was the Kansas City Monarchs , who played a total of 45 seasons from 1920 to 1965, including eleven years in the Negro National League, 34 in the Negro American League and nine years as an independent team. The last of these Negro Leagues was dissolved around 1960 after the player Jackie Robinson broke the so-called "Color Line" by being signed by a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first black player to be signed by an MLB team. The main figure of this historic moment was the sports official Branch Rickey , who was nicknamed The Mahatma as a result of his commitment to peaceful integration .
background
The historically grown racial segregation in the United States, which was legally based in the southern states from 1896 to 1954 by the principle of separate but equal , is the direct consequence of slavery in the United States . This mass enslavement of Africans began as early as the 16th century with the European colonization of America . With the end of the Civil War in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution came into force, which abolished slavery throughout the United States. In 1868, African Americans were finally granted civil rights through the 14th Amendment to the Constitution .
From this point on, i.e. since the end of slavery, one speaks of racial segregation, which meant that there were separate facilities for whites and blacks in almost all areas of public life. This also applied to sporting activities and especially in professional sport. Although the word racial segregation suggests equal parts of a population, the term is to be understood as a euphemism , since the white population had significantly more privileges than the blacks.
19 years after the historic moment when blacks were granted civil rights, this section of the population founded a professional baseball league, the National Colored Base Ball League, for the first time.
history
Before the first professional team was founded in 1885, black players initially only organized themselves into amateur teams. The first game of these teams is said to have taken place in 1860 at Elysian Field in Hoboken (New Jersey) , but this cannot be clearly proven. Elysian Field is also considered the birthplace of baseball, as the first game is said to have taken place there in 1846.
During the Reconstruction period in the mid-1860s, large numbers of black populations in the eastern and midwestern United States formed in amateur-style baseball clubs. Many of these teams, such as the Chicago Uniques or the Philadelphia Excelsiors, were led by black officers and largely consisted of former soldiers of the Civil War. By the end of the decade, Philadelphia was the center of black baseball. At that time, there were more than 22,000 black people in the big city and there were more than a dozen organized teams.
The leading figure of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia at the time was the teacher and intellectual Octavius Catto. Catto, born in Charleston, South Carolina, to a slave in 1839 , began his career in cricket while at school . He later joined the baseball club Pythian Base Ball Club, also founded by former cricketers, and later became its spokesman. Together with other players he tried to join the National Association of Base Ball Players , the first fully organized community of players in the USA. The organization decided in 1867 to exclude all teams that had even one black player active.
The first professional team
The first team in history to consist only of black players were the Cuban Giants, founded in 1885. How the team came about is unclear, as two slightly different stories have always been around about the formation of the Giants. The more popular, because more spectacular, version of the history of origin is based on Frank P. Thompson, the head waiter of the Argyle Hotel in the small New York town of Babylon on Long Island . He is said to have founded a baseball team with other waiters, which was soon seen as a major attraction by hotel guests and thus attracted more and more spectators to their games.
The second, apparently historically correct version of the history of origin states that Thompson founded the team at the Argyle Hotel, but the cadre by no means consisted of other employees of the hotel. Rather, almost all team members were previously active in amateur baseball teams and were poached by Thompson from there with the promise of payment. Thompson personally confirmed this practice in a newspaper interview he gave in 1887. Although the team was active under the name Cuban Giants until 1899, none of the active came from Cuba . According to a statement made by the then player Sol White , the name was chosen to hide the truth about the origin of the players when looking for possible opponents and thus to have the opportunity to be invited to away games more often.
National Colored Base Ball League (NCBBL) (1887)
The National Colored Base Ball League was the first attempt by the blacks, separated from the other population groups, to set up their own professional game operation. Eight teams were planned, but just two weeks after the first game the game was stopped again, so that only six of the eight teams had played at all. The first game took place on May 6, 1887 between the Gorhams from New York City and the Keystones from Pittsburgh and ended with 11: 8 runs . After the National Colored Base Ball League was eliminated, it was more than 30 years before the first long-lived league was launched in 1920.
The seven most important Negro Leagues
Nowadays, the term Negro Leagues in the narrower sense means seven more or less successful and long-lasting leagues that were formed from 1920 onwards. The naming Negro for the leagues founded was based on the goal of the black population not to be called African anymore, because they wanted to establish themselves as citizens with equal rights. In the eyes of those involved, the designation as African American contained the inadmissible generalization that all blacks are actually African, even though they see themselves as part of the United States.
The longest-lived Negro League was the Negro American League (NAL), which existed for 23 years. However, the league sank into insignificance after just 20 years after the color line was broken in 1957. All significant Negro Leagues had clear geographical boundaries. The classification according to cardinal points , as it can still be found in US sports today, was also common here. There were parts of the name such as Eastern , East-West or Southern . In the early years of the professional Negro Leagues, everything was centered on the eastern United States. Not a single team from the early years that played in such a league was more western than Kansas City.
Furthermore, there was also competition between different organizers of a league in the area of the Negro Leagues. Even today there are two leagues in the MLB, the American League and the National League , which are run separately from each other. The American-National-classification was accordingly also present in the Negro Leagues.
Negro National League (NNL) (1920-1931)
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 : The seven locations of the eight founding members of the NNL 1920. Two teams were based in Chicago.  : The five locations of the six founding members of the ECL in 1923. Two teams were based in New York City. |
The first of the two leagues, which began playing under the name Negro National League (NNL), was founded on February 13, 1920 at a meeting of all team owners at the YMCA in Kansas City . The project was previously driven by Rube Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants, who later also became head of the league. In 1981, Foster was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame .
Geographically, when the league was founded in 1920, it spanned the midwestern United States. The westernmost city was Kansas City, the easternmost Pittsburgh. The eight founding members came from a total of five US states . Over the years, the league expanded southwards by adding several new teams. The southernmost city in NLL history was Birmingham in the state of Alabama , where the Black Barons were based. Two of the most important Negro clubs on the east coast of the time, the Hilldale Club from Darby and the Bacharach Giants from Atlantic City , were part of the league organization from 1920 to 1922, but did not take part in the competition. These teams are the origin of the Eastern Colored League competition series founded in 1923.
A total of 24 teams took part in the league's eleven-year history, five of which came from Cleveland alone . The Chicago American Giants became record champions with five titles. In addition to the American Giants , only two other teams were able to secure victory in the Negro National League with the Kansas City Monarchs (4) and the St. Louis Stars (3).
Eastern Colored League (ECL) (1923-1928)
The Eastern Colored League (ECL) was founded in 1923 to compete with the NNL. The starting point was a dispute between the NNL and the two teams belonging to the organization, Hilldale Club and Bacharach Giants , who left the Negro National League due to disagreements. The other four founding members alongside these two teams were the Brooklyn Royal Giants , the Cuban Stars , the Lincoln Giants of New York, and the Baltimore Black Sox .
A year after the league was founded, it was expanded by two more teams to eight teams. In addition to the Harrisburg Giants from Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , a team from Washington, DC , the Washington Potomacs , was added.
At the end of the 1924 season, those responsible for the two leagues spoke out and decided to host a Negro League World Series. The series was held for the first time in 1924 and the last time in 1927. The only team from the ECL that could win the series was the team from Hilldale 1924. Accordingly, the teams from the NNL emerged victorious in three of four comparisons. Specifically, these were twice the Chicago American Giants and once the Kansas City Monarchs.
American Negro League (1929)
The American Negro League was created in 1929 after the collapse of the Eastern Colored League a year earlier. The league was founded by five teams that were previously active in the ECL. These were the Bacharach Giants , the Baltimore Black Sox , the Cuban Stars , the Hilldale Club, and the Lincoln Giants . In addition, the previously independent Homestead Grays team from Homestead (Pennsylvania) was added. The season was split in half. It was planned that the respective winners of the two half-series would determine the champion in a play-off at the end of the season. Since the Baltimore Black Sox won both halves of the season, they were ultimately awarded the title without a final series.
The league's game operations were no longer started for the 1930 season for reasons that have not yet been precisely verified. It would take until 1933 before a league of teams in the east again completed a full season. This happened under the name Negro National League, which is mostly known under the name Negro National League II or Second Negro National League due to the similarity with the league from 1920-1931.
East-West League (1932)
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The seven locations of the eight East-West League teams. The Cuban Stars had no home. |
At the beginning of 1932 there was no longer any operating Negro major league in the USA. The Great Depression had brought both the league organizations and the individual teams into financial difficulties. Cumberland "Cum" Posey, the owner of the Homestead Grays , then pursued the plan to create a single league that should include teams from both the East and the Midwest of the United States. This project was very ambitious because since the formation of the first Negro Leagues there has been constant trench warfare between teams and leagues in these geographical regions.
After Posey established the league shortly afterwards, the East-West League began playing with eight teams in May 1932. In addition to the Homestead Grays , the participating Detroit Wolves team was also owned by Cum Posey. The audience interest in the league, however, was disappointing, so that clubs and the organization got into financial difficulties. The independent Pittsburgh Crawfords team , led by Gus Greenlee, took this opportunity to poach important players from the Homestead Grays , including successful and experienced players such as Josh Gibson , Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston .
Posey then lifted the previously imposed ban on his teams' games against the Pittsburgh Crawfords in order to generate audience revenue. However, the team and its league were now so weakened that the game was stopped before the end of the season, and so there is no official champion in this league.
A year later, in 1933, Posey's competitor Greenlee founded the second Negro National League, which was to unite the two competing teams from Homestead and Pittsburgh for the first time in one organization.
Negro Southern League (1920-1940s)
The Negro Southern League was founded almost parallel to the Negro National League in 1920 by Tom Wilson and was home to teams from the southern states of the USA. However, the organization was difficult and not very lucrative compared to the leagues in the north. This can mainly be explained by the Jim Crow Laws , which cemented racial segregation in everyday life much more strongly in the southern states than in other places. The southern states were accordingly the center of racial discrimination in the USA.
Due to the lack of acceptance in the southern states, the Negro Southern League is actually more to be seen as an amateur league, but it deserves a mention due to the distinctive feature of its regional home. The league reached its peak of attention in the 1932 season. This was less due to the quality of the league, but rather the NSL was the only Negro League that played a full season that year. The champions of this season were the Chicago American Giants . The league existed without much publicity until the 1940s, after the strong and significant teams migrated to the second Negro National League.
Negro National League (1933-1948)
The second Negro National League was formed in 1933, two years after the first NNL was dissolved. The league existed until 1948. Some teams that were still intact at that time then moved to the Negro American League. From 1942 until the collapse of the league, the winner of the NNL carried out a World Series against the champion of the NAL.
In the first season of 1933 eight teams took part in the game. Over the years, the league has been almost permanently restructured, as many teams left the NNL, new ones were added, or changed their location. So moved as the Bluebirds from Columbus during the first season after Cleveland to and were in Cleveland Giants renamed. By far the most successful team in the second NNL were the Homestead Grays , who joined the league in 1934 and won the title ten times.
Negro American League (1937-ca. 1960)
The Negro American League (NAL), founded in 1937, united the strongest teams in the South and Midwest. The league competed fairly with Greenlee's Negro National League and would become the last Negro League in history once the blacks were integrated.
The NAL started in 1937 with eight teams in their first season, which the Kansas City Monarchs , who should also go down as record winners in NAL history, won. Although the league was active up to and including 1960, it only existed as an amateur league in its final years. The reason for this was the fact that during the time of integration almost all players with potential switched to the major or minor leagues.
integration
The beginning of the integration of black players can be dated back to 1944, when the first commissioner of the MLB Kenesaw Mountain Landis died. Landis was an avowed advocate of racial segregation and blocked any opening of the teams to players of the Negro Leagues during his tenure. After his death, Albert Benjamin Chandler, who is usually known as Happy Chandler due to his cheerful nature , took over the office.
Chandler openly admitted that he wanted to drive integration. For this he even risked his office. After 15 of 16 teams voted against the integration in a secret ballot, Chandler continued to stick to his plan and lost the support of the majority of the team owners. Chandler later wrote in his biography that he could not have forbidden any black player in good conscience from playing in the Major Leagues after they had fought for their country in World War II shortly before.
In March 1945 the attempt to set up the planned Major League Committee on Baseball Integration failed because one of the planned participants boycotted it. Branch Rickey , the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers , who was to become the leading figure in integration policy, was also planned for the committee . Rickey then tried to find the right player to break the color line. He began sending all of the Dodger scouts in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico to search. At the end of the search, the list was limited to three players. Roy Campanella , Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson .
On August 28, 1945, Rickey invited Jackie Robinson to his home. He expected that a black player would face racist abuse from spectators and opponents. For this reason, Rickey tested the player by shouting such insults during a trial session and making sure that Robinson was not distracted or even aggressive. After successfully passing this exam, Jackie Robinson received an initially secret contract from Rickey.
At around the same time, politics was also moving towards integration, and the idea that a black could play in the MLB was no longer absurd. On October 23, 1945, the president of the Montreal Royals announced, without knowledge of the existing contract between Robinson and Rickey, that he would sign Jackie Robinson shortly. This was when Rickey had to announce that he had already done so.
In early 1946, Rickey closed contracts with other players who were previously active in the Negro Leagues. These were Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, John Wright, and Roy Partlow. However, none of the named played yet.
On April 15, 1947, Robinson became the first player ever to compete in a major league wearing the Dodgers' jersey, and a hunt for talented Negro Leagues began. Often no consideration was given to existing contracts in the other leagues.
Almost at the same time, the two remaining Negro Leagues also opened. Eddie Klep was the first white player to be used in a Negro League team wearing the Cleveland Buckeyes jersey.
| The first blacks in MLB | ||
| date | player | team |
|---|---|---|
| April 15, 1947 | Jackie Robinson | Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) |
| July 5, 1947 | Larry Doby | Cleveland Indians (AL) |
| July 17, 1947 | Hank Thompson | St. Louis Browns (AL) |
| July 8, 1949 | Monte Irvin | New York Giants (NL) |
| April 18, 1950 | Sam Jethroe | Boston Braves (NL) |
The end of the Negro Leagues
In the course of the integration, there were suggestions to integrate the Negro Leagues into the major league system. However, in the eyes of many, this was in stark contrast to the goal of bringing all population groups together. As a result, a large number of Negro League players signed contracts with clubs of the MLB. These were mostly minor league contracts that guaranteed participation in professional baseball despite the subclass.
The end of the Negro National League began after the Grays withdrew from the league and disbanded for the 1949 season, sweeping many other teams away. A short time later, the New York Black Yankees dissolved and the Eagles moved to Houston with the franchise. There was only the Negro American League left as a professional organization. In the period from 1949 to 1951, the league fell back to minor league level due to a lack of quality and audience interest and operated in this state until 1958.
The last real Negro League team were the Indianapolis Clowns, who played their last game in 1966. Until 1988 the clowns still appeared as a show team, comparable to the Harlem Globetrotters in basketball , in various games.
Women in the Negro Leagues
In contrast to the Major Leagues, three women were active as players in the Negro Leagues. All three were first signed by the Indianapolis Clowns. The first was Toni Stone, who joined the clowns in 1953. After she was given to the Kansas City Monarchs a year later, Connie Morgan and Mamie "Peanut" Johnson got contracts in Indianapolis. To date, there has not been a woman active in the MLB, although she has made a handful of appearances in the minor leagues.
Negro Leagues players in the Baseball Hall of Fame
The discussion about the admission of players from the Negro Leagues to the Baseball Hall of Fame was first initiated by baseball legend Ted Williams . Williams was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966 and campaigned for the Negro Leagues players in his welcome speech.
“Inside this building are plaques dedicated to baseball men of all generations and I'm privileged to join them. [...] I hope that someday the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in some way can be added as a symbol of the great Negro players that are not here only because they were not given a chance. "
“There are plaques in this building dedicated to baseball players of all generations and I am privileged to join them. [...] And I hope that one day the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will somehow be added as a symbol of the great Negro League players who are only absent because they weren't given a chance. "
The pressure on the Hall of Fame increased when Robert W. Peterson, a writer for the New York Times , published the chronicle "Only the Ball Was White," which attracted great public interest in the subject. The Hall of Fame then planned to set up its own award for the players in the Negro Leagues. A wave of criticism from journalists, fans and players followed. Satchel Paige spoke personally and said that he would accept nothing less than full membership in the circle of excellent players in the Hall of Fame. The hall gave in and decided to set up a special Negro League Committee to vote in 1971, which should decide on the admission of Negro players on an equal footing. Satchel Paige was included as the only player. In the following years, more outstanding players from the Negro Leagues were gradually elected into the Hall of Fame.
The discussion focused mainly on players who had never played in any of the major leagues. Due to the quick transition, there were also some players, such as Larry Doby , Willie Mays or Hank Aaron , who were active in both leagues and were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
As part of the Baseball Hall of Fame Balloting 2006 , a committee of twelve sports historians subsequently elected 17 other personalities from the time of the Negro Leagues to the Hall of Fame. This group included Effa Manley , who was the first woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
See also
literature
General
- Hogan, Lawrence D .: Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues & the Story of African-American Baseball . 1st edition. New York 2007, ISBN 1-4262-0033-1 .
- McNeil, William F .: Baseball's Other All-Stars: The Greatest Players from the Negro Leagues, the Japanese Leagues, the Mexican League, and the Pre-1960 Winter Leagues:… Cuba, Puerto Rica and the Dominican Republic . Mcfarland & Co Inc, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2000, ISBN 0-7864-0784-0 .
- Heaphy, Leslie A .: The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960 . Mcfarland & Co Inc, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2002, ISBN 978-0-7864-1380-5 .
- Ribowsky, Mark: A Complete History of the Negro Leagues: 1884 to 1955 . 2nd Edition. Citadel; Carol Pub. Group Ed edition, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8065-1868-8 .
- Peterson, Robert: Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams . Oxford University Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-507637-0 .
Biographies
- Holway, John: Josh and Satch: The Life and Times of Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige . Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc, 1992, ISBN 0-88184-817-4 .
- O'Neil, Buck: I Was Right on Time . Simon & Schuster, 1996, ISBN 0-684-80305-4 .
- Paige, LeRoy Satchel: Maybe I'll Pitch Forever . University of Nebraska, 1993, ISBN 0-8032-8732-1 .
- Ribowsky, Mark: Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball . 1st edition. Da Capo Press, 2000, ISBN 0-306-80963-X .
- Ribowsky, Mark: Josh Gibson: The Power and the Darkness . University of Illinois, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-252-07224-3 .
- Lowenfish, Lee: Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman . University of Nebraska Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8032-1103-2 .
Web links
- Negro League Baseball.com (English)
- Negro Leagues Legacy on the official website of Major League Baseball (English)
- Negro Leagues Baseball Players Association (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Hogan, Lawrence D .: Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues & the Story of African-American Baseball New York (2007), ISBN 1-4262-0033-1 .
- ^ A b Pearson Prentice Hall: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ( Memento from December 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b c Heaphy, Leslie A .: The Negro Leagues 1869-1960 Jefferson (North Carolina) 2003, ISBN 0-7864-1380-8 .
- ^ League of Colored Baseball Clubs . baseball reference. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
- ↑ Peterson, pp. 34ff
- ↑ Schwartz, Larry Jackie changed face of sports on espn.com, accessed March 13, 2011 (in English)
- ^ South Carolina Slave Laws Summary and Record ( March 2, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed October 16, 2014
- ↑ From slavery to freedom: The history of racial segregation in the USA , podcast from Bavaria 2 Radio Knowledge from April 4, 2008, in the archive of Heidelberg University.
- ↑ a b c Black Famous Baseball Firsts at baseball-almanac.com (English). Retrieved February 19, 2011.
- ↑ Peterson, pp. 16-20
- ↑ O'Reilly, Charles, mysite.verizon.net: Birthplace of Baseball Monument, Hoboken, NJ ( Memento of 24 July 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on 16 October 2014
- ↑ Peterson, pp. 34-36
- ↑ a b c Lanctot, Neil: Fair Dealing and Clean Playing: the Hilldale Club and the development of black professional baseball, 1910-1932. Jefferson (North Carolina) 1994, ISBN 0-89950-988-6 .
- ↑ Peterson, pp. 53ff
- ^ A b Riley, James A .: The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues 1994 ISBN 0-7867-0959-6
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., p 21-23
- ^ Riley, p. 836
- ^ League of Colored Baseball Clubs . baseball-reference.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
- ↑ Daily News: Use of word Negro on 2010 census forms raises memories of Jim Crow , January 6, 2010, accessed March 21, 2011
- ↑ Martin Luther King : The I Have a Dream Speech In his famous speech, Martin Luther King calls black people Negro
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history, ..., p 92-94, 146, 165
- ↑ Todd Bolton: History of the Negro Major Leagues ( Memento December 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Hall of Famers: Rube Foster . National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., pp 104-122
- ^ Lester, Larry: Baseball's First Colored World Series . McFarland & Co, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2006, ISBN 0-7864-2617-9 (English).
- ↑ Riley, pp. 636-638
- ↑ Mills, P. Historical Timeline of the Negro Leagues
- ^ Franklin, John Hope: An Illustrated History of Black Americans . New York: Time Life Books, 1970. ISBN 0-316-84596-5
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., p 109-110, 123
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., p 308, 312, 314
- ^ Holway, John B. The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues ISBN 0-8038-2007-0
- ^ League American at baseballlibrary.com, accessed March 19, 2011
- ↑ Manning, J .: 9 Innings - A Baseball History Reader , accessed March 20, 2011
- ↑ Regalado, Samuel O .: Heroes, Plain Folks, and Skunks: The Life and Times of Happy Chandler in the Journal of Sports History, Issue 17, 1990 as pdf
- ^ Harrison, Lowell H .: Kentucky's Governors (Chapter: Albert Benjamin Chandler 1935-1939, 1955-1959) , The University Press of Kentucky (2004); ISBN 0-8131-2326-7
- ↑ Happy Chandler: Bluegrass Days, Neon Nights : Bluegrass Boy ( Memento August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Lowenfish, p. 349ff
- ↑ Lowenfish, pp 371-385
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., pp 271-276
- ↑ Ribowsky: A complete history ..., pp 278-290
- ↑ Induction Speech by Ted Williams official homepage of the National Baseball Hall of Fame (English)