The Negro Leagues: Celebrating Baseball's Unsung Heroes
Bud Fowler back row middle poses for a photo with his teammates in 1885 Teams such as this one which was based in Keokuk Iowa often had a mix of white and black players
1 THE SEGREGATION OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Baseball's modern era began in 1901 That year the American League emerged joining the National League as one of the game's two major professional leagues It's the point from which most of the game's all time records are kept Many modern fans pore over every statistic and bit of data that comes after 1901 while all but disregarding that which came before Yet pro baseball didn't begin in 1901 For decades before the advent of the modern era the game was taking shape both on and off the field And that's where the story of baseball's 60 year segregation begins After America's Civil War 1861 1865 the earliest seeds of professional baseball began to sprout And while racism was rampant overtly in the South less openly in the North some early teams featured black and white players competing side by side Not all early pro leagues embraced integrated baseball In 1867 the National Association of Base Ball Players voted to exclude any team that had black players Their reasoning was particularly telling of racial views of the period The association claimed that by including blacks there would in all probability be division of feeling whereas by excluding them no injury could result to anybody
PIONEERS Two men Moses Fleetwood Walker and Bud Fowler helped blaze the path for black players at the highest ranks of pro baseball MOSES FLEETWOOD WALKER Moses Fleetwood Walker regarded by most historians as the first African American to play major organized baseball was born in 1856 in Mount Pleasant Ohio In 1883 he signed with the minor league Toledo Blue Stockings While with Toledo Walker ran into the Chicago White Stockings and outspoken racist Cap Anson Anson threatened to cancel the game if Walker played But the Blue Stockings didn't budge and Anson eventually gave up on his demand In 1884 Toledo joined the American Association a major league Walker s major league debut was a disaster He made at least four errors in the game and didn't record a hit He suffered a season ending injury in July and Toledo folded after the season In total Walker played 42 major league games batting 263 Walker's baseball career ended in 1889 The business owner publisher and inventor remained an advocate for civil rights until his death in 1924 BUD FOWLER Bud Fowler grew up in Cooperstown New York the future home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Fowler spent about 25 seasons playing pro ball He gained his first real measure of fame in 1872 when he took the mound and defeated Boston s National League team 2 1 Fowler understood that the game's highest profile position was pitcher and that it would be coveted by his white teammates So to improve his chances of playing with the top pro teams he switched to second base Fowler was one of the great players of the time Yet no National League team would pick him up According to an 1885 article in the popular sports newspaper the Sporting Life The poor fellow's skin is against him Those who know say there is no better second baseman in the country After his playing career Fowler helped found the Page Fence Giants which enjoyed a brief existence as the class of black baseball Yet for all his success Fowler battled poverty and illness after his baseball career ended He died in 1913 penniless and buried in an unmarked
Despite such logic and despite abuse from fellow players and fans some leagues allowed black players to take the field alongside white players Early black legends such as Bud Fowler Moses Fleetwood Walker and Welday Wilberforce Walker made their marks alongside white teammates By 1887 many fans especially in the northeastern United States were used to watching a sport that was at least partially integrated But that was about to change A LINE IN THE SAND After the Civil War the North and South struggled to rebuild a nation that had been ripped apart by conflict Part of the mending of their shattered union was the Compromise of 1877 The agreement effectively ended the openly hostile relationship that had existed between the two sides since the end of the war As a result the white-dominated Democratic Party took control of the southern states Among the measures these politicians enacted were laws mandating public separation between blacks and whites Ten years later these Jim Crow laws as they were called would change the shape of pro baseball It all started with a single game Cap Anson a future Hall of Famer had been one of the most popular players in the early pro game By 1887 Anson was the manager of the Chicago White Stockings the present-day Chicago Cubs On July 14 1887 his team was scheduled to play an exhibition game against the integrated Cap Anson played pro baseball for 27 years mostly for the Chicago White Stockings Anson opposed integrated baseball THE SEGREGATION OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL 9
