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Baseball was originally a "gentleman's game" played by members of rival athletic clubs for recreation. In the aftermath of the Civil War, baseball enjoyed a great surge in interest, activity and growth. Americans of all classes, creeds and races joined in the game that became our national pastime. Baseball was then still an amateur sport and some black Americans played on all-black ballclubs while others played on integrated teams.
However, black ballplayers were excluded from participation by the National Association of Baseball Players on December 11, 1868 when the the governing body voted unanimously to bar "any club which may be composed of one or more colored persons." This was the first appearance of an official "color line" in baseball.
When baseball attained professinal status the following season, pro teams were not bound by the amateur association's ruling, and during the 19th century black ballplayers appeared on integrated teams and some black teams played in integrated leagues. Two brothers, Moses Fleetwood Walker and Welday Walker, even played in the major leagues in 1884. But gradually, black players began to be excluded from the white leagues and by the beginning of the new century, there were no black players in organized baseball.
However, black Americans continued to play baseball. By necessity they played on all-black teams and eventually in all-black leagues. The first black professional team was the Cuban Giants in 1885, but the teams played as independent ballclubs until the first black league was organized in 1920.
That year Rube Foster, the father of black baseball, founded the Negro National League. Three years later, in 1923, Ed Bolden formed the Eastern Colored League. These two leagues operated successfully for several years before they fell victim to financial difficulties. Other black major leagues also operated for a single season but were not able to continue on a sound fiscal basis.
Eventually, two new leagues were organized. A new Negro National League was formed in 1933 and the Negro American League was chartered in 1937. These two leagues thrived until the color line was broken. During their existence, the Negro Leagues played eleven World Series (1924-27, 1942-48) and created their own All-Star game (1933-48) that became the biggest black sports attraction in the country.
The Negro National League folded following the 1948 season and, although black teams continued to play for several years, they were no longer of major league caliber. The demise of the Negro Leagues was inevitable as the younger black players were signed by the white major league franchises.
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