|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Breaking the Barrier
| Article
# : |
10436 |
|
|
Section : |
LIFE
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1993 |
2,489 Words |
| Author
: |
John Tibbets
John C. Tibbetts teaches theater and film at the University of
Kansas and is a radio and TV broadcaster. He is the author of
The American Theatrical Film and other books. |
Long before Jackie Robinson broke the color line and joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, black ballplayers played major league baseball. Negro leagues baseball, that is. The Negro leagues were the "other half" of baseball in their day.
The generic label refers to various coalitions of professional black baseball players extending from the late nineteenth century to the Jackie Robinson era. The Negro leagues introduced night baseball, and the screwball. They fielded great players--pitchers Rube Foster, Wilber "Bullet" Rogan, and Leroy "Satchel" Paige, slugger Josh Gibson, speed demon James "Cool Papa" Bell, and third baseman Ray Dandridge. Their teams bore exotic names: the Kansas City Monarchs, the New York Cubans, and the Pittsburgh Homestead Grays. The "black ballers" were pros.
A great story, yes, but one that until recently has been almost forgotten. Segregation kept the Negro leagues apart from the white majors, and, as a result, daily newspapers paid little attention to their activities. Indeed, no aspect of American sport has been more veiled by myth and misinformation. But within the last two decades a number of books have changed that. Robert Peterson's ground-breaking Only the Ball Was White (1970); William Brashier's popular (if exaggerated) novel, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1973), two books by John S. Holway an anthology, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Stars (1988) and, most recently, Phil Dixon's The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History (1992).
Now, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, where the Negro leagues were organized, is taking shape. Soon the story of an important chapter in American sports history will be on view.
BANNED
The ban that barred black athletes from the white major leagues originated with the National Association of Base Ball Players, founded in 1859. At its annual convention in Philadelphia in 1867, the NABBP officially barred blacks from membership. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which succeeded the NABBP in 1871, maintained the prohibition. However, some of the first paid black players, such as John (Bud) Fowler and Moses Fleetwood Walker, were hired by white clubs in the 1880s.
Walker, the first black to play for a white major league team, faced both applause and racist threats. Sporting Life described Fowler's
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
