|
Breaking the Baseball Color Line
The Baseball color line was the unwritten policy that excluded African American baseball players from Organized Ball in the United States before 1947. As a result, various Negro Leagues were formed, which featured those players not allowed to participate in the major or minor leagues.
The separation's beginnings occurred in 1868, when the National
Association of Baseball (NAB) players decided to bar "any club
including one or more colored persons." As baseball became a
professional sport, professional players were no longer restricted by
this rule, and for a short while, in 1878 and again in 1884, African
American players played in the big leagues. Over time, they were slowly
excluded more and more. As prominent players such as Cap Anson, John
McGraw, and Ty Cobb steadfastly refused to take the field with or
against teams with African-Americans on the roster, it became
informally accepted that African-Americans were not to participate in
Major League Baseball.
 Responding to the lack of opportunity for black players in the NAB,
Rube Foster founded The Negro National League in 1920. Considered by
historians to have been perhaps the best African-American pitcher of
the 1900s, Foster also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants,
one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration
era. This created two parallel major leagues, and until 1947,
professional baseball in the United States was played in separate
homogenous leagues.
By 1923, Foster's Negro National League was a smashing success.
4000,000 fans turned out that season to see the teams of the new league
play. White businessmen observed the success, and big profits that
could be made from black baseball, and formed a rival league, the
Eastern Colored League. The rival league included the Philadelphia
Hilldales, Cuban Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Atlantic City Bacharach
Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, and New York Lincoln Giants.
In 1943, baseball executive Bill Veeck attempted to buy the
Philadelphia Phillies franchise; rumors began circulating that he
intended to purchase the contracts of several Negro Leaguers in order
to make the longtime also-rans more competitive in a period when war
requirements had depleted most rosters. However, the franchise was
instead sold to a different ownership group, and some historians have
recently questioned the likelihood of Veeck's rumored intentions.
 Jackie Robinson, with the backing of Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch
Rickey, made the momentous leap from the Negro Leagues to Major League
Baseball on April 18, 1946. And the rest, as they say, is history…
Editor’s
Note: For details about Jackie Robinson’s ascension to the major
leagues, and his impact on professional baseball past and present,
check out the article “500 HRC Sluggers Remember Jackie Robinson” on
www.500hrc.com.
|
