HISTORY, HEROES, AND HOME RUNS

African-Americans began to play baseball during the Civil War. They eventually found their way to professional teams with white players. However, racism and "Jim Crow" laws would force them from white professional leagues by 1900. Thus, black  players formed their own teams, "barnstorming" around the country to play anyone who would challenge them.

In 1920, an organized league structure was formed under the guidance of Andrew "Rube" Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants. In a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo., Foster convinced seven other Midwestern team owners to join him forming the Negro National League. Soon, rival leagues formed in eastern and southern states, bringing the thrills and innovative play of black baseball to major urban centers in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. The Negro Leagues maintained a high level of professional skill and became centerpieces for economic development in many African-American communities.

In 1945, Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Negro League shortstop Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs. Robinson would be recognized as the first African-American in the modern era to play on a white professional team. While this historic event was a key moment in baseball and civil rights history, it also marked the decline of the Negro Leagues. The best black players would soon be signing contracts with the Major Leagues, and black fans followed.

The last Negro League teams fold in the early 1960s, but their legacy lives on through the surviving players and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

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