How Did The Negro Baseball League Contribute To The History Of America

Negro Baseball Leagues have contributed to the history of america by integrating African Americans and Whites and having a baseball league just for African Americans. The first ever Negro League was the Negro National League created by Rube Foster. The league was composed of six teams in the beginning then eight teams towards the end, most of the teams that were in the Negro National League were from cities that have a higher population of African Americans. The league was a huge success from the very beginning but it slowly started to die out due to financial problems. A couple of years later the Negro National League had a opponent called the Eastern Colored League it was created by a white man his name was Nat Strong. The league consisted

Many whites thought that African Americans could never be good at baseball, but they were in for a rude awakening. One amazing baseball player was John W. Jackson (AKA Bud Flower), he was one of the best second baseman in the Major Leagues. Jackson is believed to be the first African American to join a White team in the 1890’s. The team Jackson played for was a team located in Pennsylvania. Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first African American baseball player to ever join the Major leagues before the color line was drawn. (Of course though Jackie Robinson was the first African American to join a major league baseball team after integration). Walker was best known for being the bare handed pitcher. Walker was the first African American to join the Major Leagues by his team joining the American Association. George Stovey was the first best African American pitcher that was ever documented. Stovey even played for some white teams as their pitcher and that was not very heard of at that time. Stovey was one of the most accomplished African American players. The color line was then drawn a few years

The baseball experts and managers started to realize the talent that African Americans had in baseball. The move for integration started with activist writers. Many White journalist started to write about African American baseball players and all of their accomplishments. Many African Americans were surprised that White writers were writing about them. “Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis……, disingenuously maintained that there was no rule against blacks in organized baseball. He was long criticized as an ardent foe of integration,” (Rogosin, Donn 7/14). Integration was mainly blocked by the team owners. Many owners and managers of teams worried that fans would lose interest in the major leagues and that the white players would treat them badly. This is what the team owners and managers were worried about before the color line was drawn. The president of the Brooklyn Dodgers said that integration would kill off the Negro Leagues, which would cause the closing of some parks because the parks relied on the Negro Leagues rent that they paid. In 1945 the first step toward integration had begun. Branch Rickey was the one who took this step, he secretly looked at Negro League teams and he told everyone that he was going to start a Brooklyn Dodgers Negro League but that was a lie. RIckey was looking for a African American player to be put on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey knew that the first African