Nineteenth Century: Race

Brief Chronology of the Negro Leagues and African-American Involvement in Organized Baseball
 by Michael Mott

The Exclusion of African Americans from the NABBP, 1867

Base-Ball at Blackville - The "White Stockings" Against the "Black Legs" - First Blood for the "Black Legs." Harper's Weekly, July 27, 1878.
Source: Doc Lawson's 19th Century Base Ball Prints

 

"A Foul Tip"
Currier and Ives, 1882
Source: Lelands.com

"A Base Hit"
Currier and Ives, 1882
Source: Lelands.com

Hi! Yi! Yer off now! / by Ittalie N. Guitarr
First line of text: I am de Cap'n ub de Di'mond Dudes
Originally published: Baltimore, Md. : Otto Sutro & Co., c1895
Source: American Memory

 


1879 Brown University Baseball Team
William E. White is seated behind team manager.
The mulatto son of a slave, he played one game for the National League Providence Greys in 1879.
Source: The Clark and Addison Chronicle

Bud Fowler

 

Moses Fleetwood Walker

 

Frank Grant
Frank Grant from a 21 September 1889 Cleveland Gazette portrait. Caption: ‘Grant had played ably for Buffalo of the International League from 1886 through 1889, until discouraged by persistent racial hostility and contract disputes.’
Source: Negro League Baseball Players Association
 

Welday Walker Protests Exclusion of African Americans from Ohio State League

(March, 1888)

Cleveland Gazette
Date: 08/02/1890

Source: American Memory: The African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920

 

 

 

1887 Cuban Giants, Back row: George Parago; Ben Holmes; Shep Trusty; Arthur Thomas; George Williams; Miller. Front row: William T. Whyte; Clarence Williams; Abe Harrison; S. K Govern, manager, Ben Boyd; Jack Frye; Frank Allen.
Photo Credit-National Baseball Library & Archive

Source: Negro League Baseball Players Association

 

Page Fence Giants, 1890s

"The Maine Base Ball Club." Photographic Print, May, 1898.
Source: American Memory

 

"Another Field of American Industry Invaded by the Chinese"
From Harper's Weekly: Harper's Weekly, Vol. 27, 1883
 

 

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