Negro leagues
Pre-integration professional baseball
The Negro leagues were professional baseball leagues in the United States composed of African American players and teams, operating primarily from the 1920s through the early 1950s.
Segregation barred Black players from Major League Baseball, so parallel leagues developed with their own stars, stadiums, and traditions.
The leagues declined after Jackie Robinson integrated MLB in 1947, though some continued into the 1960s.
Many Negro leagues players are now enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- barnstormingTouring rural areas performing
- color barrierRacial exclusion from participation
- pitcherPouring vessel or hurler
- racial discriminationPrejudice based on ethnicity
- Jim Crow lawsPost-Reconstruction racial separation statutes
Jackie Robinson · separate but equal · integration · Great Migration · Satchel Paige · Harlem Renaissance · exhibition · civil rights movement · Hall of Fame · pioneer · baseball history · legend · base · fastball · trailblazer · batting average · stolen base · spring training
- Black CultureNAACP, HBCUs, Black churches, civil rights movement, Harlem Renaissance
- Jim CrowJim Crow laws, separate but equal, segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, whites only
Negro leaguesMajor League Baseball
Premier North American ballgame organization
organized baseball · American League · National League · the bigs · the show