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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".

The official web home of the Negro League Baseball Players Association Read More »

The National Colored Base Ball League or the League of Colored Baseball Clubs was the first attempt to have a league consisting of all-black teams, predating Rube Foster's Negro National League by over three decades. The league president was Walter S. Brown, who was also manager of the Pittsburgh club. The Gorhams beat the Keystones 11-8 in the opener on May 6, 1887. Philadelphia and New York disbanded on May 18. Cincinnati and Washington were admitted on May 6, after the season started, but played no games. The league folded after two weeks on May 23. Read More »

The Homstead Greys was formed in 1912 by Cumberland Posey, and would remain in continuous operation for 38 seasons. The team was originally based in Homestead, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh. By the 1920s with increasing popularity in the Pittsburgh region, the team retained the name "Homestead" but crossed the Monongahela River to play all home games at both the Pirates home Forbes Field and Pittsburgh Crawfords home Greenlee Field both in Pittsburgh. From 1940 until 1942, the Grays played half of their home games in Washington, D.C., while remaining in Pittsburgh for all other home stands.[1] As attendance at their games in the nation's capital grew, by 1943 the Grays were playing more than two-thirds of their home games in Washington.

Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team, owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Charter members of Foster's Negro National League, the American Giants won five pennants in that league, along with another pennant in the 1932 Negro Southern League and a second-half championship in Gus Greenlee's Negro National League in 1934. The team was disbanded in 1952.

The Atlanta Black Crackers were founded as the Atlanta Cubs following the start of the 20th century with a semiprofessional team of black college students. The Cubs changed their name to the Black Crackers in 1919 and began to play independently. Birmingham Black Barons

The Cleveland Buckeyes were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1942 to 1950 in the Negro American League. The Buckeyes played in two Negro World Series, defeating the Washington Homestead Grays in 1945, and losing to the New York Cubans in 1947. They were based in Cincinnati for their first season and Louisville for their second-to-last season.

Negro American League history 101

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Negro League Timeline

1884

Moses "Fleetwood" Walker becomes first African-American player in major league baseball, signing with the Toledo club in the American Association.

Walker, a star catcher at Oberlin College, despite a creditable performance with Toledo, was cut from the squad after the season, but continued to play in organized baseball with minor league teams.

Several African-American players were active on the rosters of white minor league teams during the period.

1947

Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first black player in major league baseball during the modern era. Read More