African-Americans began to engage in the game of baseball in the mid to late 1800s. They played on military teams, college teams, and company teams. They eventually found their way to professional teams with white players. Moses Fleetwood Walker and Bud Fowler were among the first to participate. However, racism and “Jim Crow” laws would force them from these teams by 1900. Thus, black players formed their own units, “barnstorming” around the country to play anyone who would challenge them.
In 1920, an organized league structure was formed under the guidance of Andrew “Rube” Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants. In a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo., Foster and a few other Midwestern team owners joined to form the Negro National League. Soon, rival leagues formed in Eastern and Southern states, bringing the thrills and innovative play of black baseball to major urban centers and rural country sides in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. The Leagues maintained a high level of professional skill and became centerpieces for economic development in many black communities.
Comprised of defecting Cuban Giants, the Cuban X-Giants became the dominant team during the late 1890s and early 1900s.
After losing a hard fought championship series to Foster’s Chicago American Giants in 1915, the ABCs overcame a division within the management between Bowser and Taylor to defeat the Chicago American Giants for the western championship in 1916.
One of the original franchises when the Negro National League was formed in 1920 by Andrew Rube Foster. Owned by J.L. Wilkinson, a white businessman, the Monarchs were one of the best known and most successful black teams. The Monarchs captured a total of ten pennants, tying the Homestead Grays for the most flags by any Negro League team, and suffered only one losing season during their entire association with the Negro Leagues.
Organized by Rube Foster, who built the team into a dynasty before his demise, the organization was the longest continuous franchise in the history of black baseball.
The Chicago Union Giants were organized by Frank Leland in 1901, and in 1905 the club became the Leland Giants, under Lelands’s managerial command until he turned the reins over to Rube Foster in 1907.
One of the original franchises when the Negro National League was formed in 1920. They withdrew from the league ws formed in 1920.
Organized in 1919, the franchise fielded a team of outstanding players that defeated Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants
