The Rise and Fall of the Negro Baseball League

676 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: African American role in sports

The Rise and Fall of the Negro Baseball League

For the better part of the 20th century, African American baseball players played under unequal opportunity. On one side of the field, European descendants were given a license to play this children's game for money and national fame. While on the other side of the field, African slave descendants were also given a license to play - as long as they didn't encroach upon the leagues of the Caucasians. What was left over for African American player in terms of riches was meager at best. Though the fortune wasn't there, the love and fame within the African American communities made the players of the Negro Baseball League legends.

I chose to explore the Negro Baseball League to form an understanding of how the league was formed, the league's economic and social impact on the African American communities, and on the United States of America. In this paper, I will explore this tremendous impact that has forever changed the American culture, views and attitudes. This exploration will consist of reviewing different documented sources from players, fans and historians. Through these documented resources, I will also research was caused the gradual decline and eventual fall of the Negro Baseball League.

Literature Review

Issue: Negro Baseball League.

Pattern: What led to the development of Negro League Baseball.

Theme: Discrimination within professional sports.

As in all areas of social culture, African Americans denied of a shared walk through baseball history with whites turned to making their own history on the playing diamond of an ever-changing America. " African Americans recognized that they had the talent to throw and catch round horsehide objects almost as soon as t...

... middle of paper ...

...to lodge" (White, 1995).

Issue: Economic Impact.

Pattern: How The Negro League put money in the African American Communities.

Theme: Pre-Negro League economic impact vs. Post-Negro League economic impact.

Bibliography:

Y. Gertner, Y. Ishai, E. Kushilevitz, and T. Malkin. Protecting data privacy in private information retrieval schemes. In

Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC-98), pages 151--160, New York, May 23--26

1998. ACM Press.

M. Ito, A. Saito, and T. Nishizeki. Secret sharing scheme realizing general access structure. In Proceedings of the IEEE

Global Communication Conference (GLOBALCOM'87), pages 99--102, Tokyo, Japan, November 1987.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Satchel Paige

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    The differences between black and white players has been going on for a long time since the early 1920’s. The players have always been at each other since the Negro Leagues have been around. There were two players that made the transition from the Negro Leagues to the Majors and those players were Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson. Most people know of Robinson more than Paige because of the Brooklyn Dodgers recruiting him from Kansas City Monarchs. Satchel Paige was a pitcher from the Kansas City Monarchs like Robinson but he was recruited to the Cleveland Indians at the time. Paige has changed baseball today because he has shown new ways to pitch, broke the racial barrier with Robinson, and was an influence on many players in todays day.

    Read More

  • The Legend Of Jackie Robinson's Major League Baseball

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    “In 1946, there were sixteen Major League Baseball teams, with a total of 400 players on their rosters, every one of the players was white. But when opening day came in 1947, that number dropped to 399, and one man stood apart. (42 2:30)” Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Making Jackie Robinson the first African-American to play Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackie’s transition from the Negro Leagues to MLB was not an easy one. As a player, he transitioned very well, but it was Robinson’s teammates, Dodgers fans, the opposing teams and their fans that tested Jackie every chance they got, some hotels even prohibited the Dodgers to stay in their establishments

    Read More

  • Tweed: Negro League Baseball

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anything a person might want to know about Negro League Baseball can be found in the mind of Tweed Webb. Negro League Baseball is this man's specialty thanks to his father, a semi pro player and manager. If not for his father, Normal Tweed Webb might never have played shortstop with the St. Louis Black Sox while attending high school and continuing on even while he went to business college where he took a two year business course taking up bookkeeping and typing. Tweed played ball until 1934.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson's Accomplishments

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.

    Read More

  • Father Of Chinese Aviation: Jackie Robinson, Feng Ru, And Beals

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jackie Robinson decided to fight to be the first African American to integrate the Major League Baseball (MLB). His autobiography states he “was forced to live with snubs rebuffs and rejections” ( Robinson). This quote shows that he was treated unfairly and disrespectfully. In Robinson’s autobiography it also states that Jackie Robinson broke the racial barrier and created equal oppurtunity proving that a “sport can’t be called national if blacks are barred from it”

    Read More

  • Best Baseball Player from 1910-1920

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    1910 to 1920 was the one of the greatest decades for Major League Baseball. Many amazing events occurred during this decade; although, some devastating and extremely sad events also occurred. Half of these years were taken up by war, even many Hall of Fame players served. This decade still ended up being a great one for Major League Baseball. From Hall of Fame greats to Negro League pitchers, this decade produced greats. The 1910’s also set up the 1920’s for amazing players too.

    Read More

  • The Negro Leagues:History and Baseball

    2781 Words  | 6 Pages

    "Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.

    Read More

  • The Legacy Of Babe Ruth

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    Babe Ruth is still a very well-known person in history today, even almost one-hundred years later. He did not only change the way people viewed negro baseball leagues, but he also gained a large reputation for his ability to play baseball, obviously due to his amazing abilities. Ruth’s ability to play was almost impossibly good, in fact, he was even titled “athlete of the century” for his ability. With that ability and power that he had once he won, he would become a

    Read More

  • The Historiography of Race and Discrimination in Baseball and Sports

    3242 Words  | 7 Pages

    Historical and sociological research has shown, through much evidence collection and analysis of primary documents that the American sporting industry can give an accurate reflection, to a certain extent, of racial struggles and discrimination into the larger context of American society. To understand this stance, a deep look into aspects of sport beyond simply playing the game must be a primary focus. Since the integration of baseball, followed shortly after by American football, why are the numbers of African American owners, coaches and managers so very low? What accounts for the absence of African American candidates from seeking front office and managerial roles? Is a conscious decision made by established members of each organization or is this matter a deeper reflection on society? Why does a certain image and persona exist amongst many African American athletes? Sports historians often take a look at sports and make a comparison to society. Beginning in the early 1980’s, historians began looking at the integration of baseball and how it preceded the civil rights movement. The common conclusion was that integration in baseball and other sports was indeed a reflection on American society. As African Americans began to play in sports, a short time later, Jim Crow laws and segregation formally came to an end in the south. Does racism and discrimination end with the elimination of Jim Crow and the onset of the civil rights movement and other instances of race awareness and equality? According to many modern sports historians and sociologists, they do not. This paper will focus on the writings of selected historians and sociologists who examine th...

    Read More

  • Black Athletes In Sports

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the major stands that were made during a black athlete’s tenure during his or her sport were their statements on racism. Racism in America was an ongoing situation in the 1900’s that seemed to have no resolve before black athletes took a stand. One prime example can be Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in the modern era. Jackie grew up in one of the most racist towns in Pasadena, California and came from a poor family as his parents were sharecroppers and...

    Read More

  • The Desegregation of Baseball

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Desegregation of baseball in America was a slow process. Near the end of the 1800's, African American ballplayers were accepted in the Major Leagues, but as their success grew, they were quickly banned from the league. For the fifty-year period that there were no blacks in the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues were where black ballplayers competed. The Negro Leagues grew and many stars emerged from the leagues that now have a legendary status. When Jackie Robinson joined the Major Leagues in 1954, baseball was once again desegregated (Sailer). The complete integration of the league was not as rapid as many would have expected. Economic reasons seemed to be the main reason why African Americans were brought back into the Major Leagues but there were other factors that contributed.

    Read More

  • The History of Baseball

    1295 Words  | 3 Pages

    Americans began playing baseball on informal teams, using local rules, in the early 1800s. By the 1860s, the sport, unrivaled in popularity, was being described as America's "national pastime." Alexander Joy Cartwright of New York invented the modern baseball field in 1845. Alexander Cartwright and the members of his New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club devised the first rules and regulations for the modern game of baseball.

    Read More

  • African American Athlete: Their Role in American Culture

    3732 Words  | 8 Pages

    Lanctot, Neil. 2004. Negro league baseball :The rise and ruin of a black institution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Read More

  • Baseball is the National Pastime

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    This game of a stick and ball has captivated the United States during good and bad times. In either time most of us today can remember stories of players from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. These are legendary figures in the sport of baseball that have are celebrated as hero’s and in scandal, i...

    Read More

  • Racism and Discrimination in Sports

    2487 Words  | 5 Pages

    For instance, ?The American Dream of unlimited possibilities was shattered for black athletes. By 1900 most of them had successfully been excluded from American sport and were forced to establish their own separate sporting organizations. The most famous of these were the black baseball leagues, a loose aggregate of teams that did not achieve much organizational structure until Rube Foster founded the National Negro Baseball League in 1920. Late nineteenth-century black athletes were often disturbed by their inability to be classified by an...

    Read More

More about The Rise and Fall of the Negro Baseball League

Open Document