History of Developing The Negro American League of Baseball

Time and again, Negro League players shared how restaurants refused to serve them and hotels refused to rent them rooms, even when they were the sole Black members of their high school and college sports teams. African-American athletes had to make do with the fare offered by the hot dog stands at the fields where they played, and they more often than not spent the night in the private homes of African-American residents in the towns they visited.

Segregation in baseball started in 1867 when the Pennsylvania State Convention of Baseball in Harrisburg would not allow African American team to enter. Then the best white players refused to play with or against teams with any black players and it became normal that African Americans were not to participate in Major League Baseball.

Segregated baseball lasted sixty years, from 1887 until 1947 when Jackie Robinson took his place with the Dodgers. But in between those times there were other black players that most people don’t know about like John Bud Fowler who played for a white team for a short time in 1872 and Moses Fleetwood Walker who played briefly in 1884.

But black players were very talented and wanted to start their own teams so in 1885 the first black club called the Cuban Giants was made. It was sad because they felt they would be not being discriminated against if white people thought they were a foreign team.

Because of how talented these black players were, news started to get out that major league scouts were watching the Negro League players. That lead to Jackie Robinson being signed to the Dodgers.

Do you say the cells the Negro Leagues were able to bat throw and catch just as well as the men sometimes intimidated and stature but because they were so into baseball that they could perform as well as any man these ladies had to figure out how to change uniforms with the men even though even the men were not allowed to go into certain hotels or restroom to change clothes they traveled on the bus with them and they had to learn how to deal with a lot of?

The Demise/Folding of the Negro Leagues

In 1947 the Negro Leagues were split into two leagues, just like Major League Baseball — the Negro National League and the Negro American League. The NNL collapsed in 1948, but the NAL lived on in some form until 1963.

Integration did have an extremely negative impact on the Negro Leagues in the sense that it poached their star players. Think about why the major leagues are more popular today than the minors — the majors are where the big guns play. When all of the stars (and there were many) left the Negro Leagues, there was a less exciting team on the field in many Negro League cities.

Newly integrated major league teams were also very popular with African American fans. This left many columnists that wrote for African American newspapers with a dilemma: They wanted to encourage readers to attend the major league games, yet knew that would seriously damage Negro League game attendance. These writers knew that for many major league owners, economics were one of the primary interests. If integration could bring them more money, and more success on the field, they were more likely to embrace African American players.

As Negro League baseball limped into the 1950s, it tried to change its model. There was more barnstorming — teams traveled around the country playing different teams in different cities. Some teams tried to attract attention by adding women to their rosters. The Indianapolis Clowns signed infielder Toni Stone in 1953 to play second base (where Hank Aaron had played for the Clowns just a couple years before), and her presence on the team did boost attendance. (Other women were added during the 1950s as well). It soon became clear that the league just didn’t have the talent and the fan base to continue. The core of the league in the ’50s included Kansas City, Birmingham, Memphis and Detroit. Other teams in Mobile, New Orleans and Raleigh came and went. The league struggled on until 1963, and when it finally folded many fans hadn’t even realized the league was still in existence. (Liscio, 2012)

Conclusion: How these 3 women were able to play despite the hardships faced from others as they played a game they loved and was able to inspire others also.

Baseball is still a sport primarily associated with men. Social and institutional restrictions on who can play baseball have funneled many women athletes into softball instead. This shift intensified under U.S. Title IX legislation, which prevents discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally-funded educational setting, including sports programs. To satisfy their requirements under Title IX, many schools classified softball and baseball as equivalent sports, reinforcing the cultural conventions that for decades had closed off baseball to women. But women’s baseball has a rich history and continues to be played today on an international scale. While the state of women’s baseball in the United States and overseas has ebbed and flowed over time, it has often reflected the shifting beliefs about gender and sports and their place in the broader socio-cultural context.

Many African-American newspapers ran stories about the phenomenon of “girl” players on male baseball teams in the Negro League. Most of the stories were posted in African-American newspapers or weekly sports magazines unlike the mainstream white newspapers who briefly spoke of the “girl” players of baseball as only a passing fade. Black women athletes were portrayed as “models of pride and resistance,” encouragement, and power. Women who chose to speak up and claim power from the “the sometimes-unwritten rules that kept them out of restaurants, department stores, offices, bus seats, desirable neighborhoods, movie roles and well-paying jobs.” White-dominated baseball was another frontier black Americans conquered during the postwar period. (Jason 2016)

They played on high school teams but the when the opportunity presented itself to try out for the All-American Girls Professional League they will not even allowed on the field. Later the managers from the Kansas City Monarchs were looking for a way to increase spectorship. The managers from the Kansas City monarchs scouted for ladies out and wanted them to come play so he could increase the audience participation in the Negro League Baseball Field and teamsIn 1991 Stone and other players from the Negro leagues were honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 1993 she was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Connie Morgan was inducted in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. Morgan was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.