This section of the web page has information on several black baseball players. Some of these players played in the Major Leagues, while others never received the opportunity. Many of the men included have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The players included are: Rube Foster, Moses Walker, Satchel Page, Buck O'Neil, Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson, Walter "Buck" Leonard, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, James "Cool Papa" Bell, Monte Irvin, and Ray Dandridge.The sport of baseball first appeared in 1840, by 1860 the sport had spread throughout the United States and professional teams were beginning to form. In the beginning a select number of African Americans were allowed to play with white players. The first African American to play professional baseball was Moses Fleetwood Walker. Walker, an Oberlin College graduate, played for the Toledo team in 1884. His career continued through 1890. Walker and players like him underwent constant ridicule and verbal assault form fans, opponents, and even their own teammates.
The best time for African American players during this era came during the 1880s. This period was very short. By the 1890s, African Americans were being forced out of professional baseball leagues. Some teams had written statements that kept African Americans off the teams. Others however, had an unspoken and unwritten rule called a "gentleman’s agreements." The agreement was that the teams were to be kept all white. To worsen the situation, in 1920 major league teams were forbidden to play against black teams. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis who was the Major League Baseball’s commissioner implemented this rule.
The first black baseball teams appeared in the 1860s. The black teams played against each other, college teams, and rarely Major League teams. It was common for these teams to play 100 games in a year. There were no organized leagues at this time. Much of the credit for developing the Negro leagues is given to Andrew Rube Foster. The Negro National League was formed on February 13, 1920. It was made up of the top eight Midwest black teams. The year 1933 marked the start of the all-star games. What made this game so special was that the fans voted on what players would participate. Each year the crowds at the East-West games grew larger and larger. By the 1940s the crowds averaged about 40,000 to 50,000 people. In the Negro Leagues later seasons white sport writers would come to the game and watch the black players display their amazing talents. With such crowds and obvious abilities present in the Negro Leagues many people, both black and white, began to wonder why blacks were still excluded from the major leagues.
In 1945 the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson to a contract, and in 1946 Robinson played for the Montreal Royals their Minor League team. In 1947 Robinson made his debut in the Major Leagues with the Dodgers. Robinson’s reintegration of baseball made it possible for other Negro players to make it into the Major Leagues. However this also marked a difficult period for some Negro players. The Major League teams were only looking for young players. This left players like Cool Papa Bell and Josh Gibson out of the Majors. Negro League fans stop attending the Negro League games. The fans wanted to see the best players who were now in the Majors. The Negro Leagues finally went out of business in 1968, at this time Major League baseball was fully integrated (Margolies, 1993).
Reference:
Margolies, J. (1993). The Negro Leagues: The Story of Black Baseball. New York: Franklin Watts