The color line in American baseball, until the late 1940s, excluded players of Black African descent from

Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues. Racial segregation in professional baseball was
sometimes called a gentlemen's agreement, meaning a tacit understanding, as there was no written
policy at the highest level of baseball organization. Some older leagues did have rules against teams
signing black players, with color lines drawn during the 1880s and 1890s.

On the other side of the color line, many black baseball clubs were established, especially during the
1920s to 1940s when there were several Negro Leagues. During this period some light-skinned Hispanic
players, Native Americans, and native Hawaiians were able to play in the Major Leagues.

The color line was broken when Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the
1946 season. In 1947, both Robinson in the National League and Larry Doby with the American League's
Cleveland Indians appeared in games for their teams. By the late 1950s, the percentage of blacks on
Major League teams matched or exceeded that of the general population.

Contents [hide]

1 Origins

2 Sub rosa efforts at integration

3 The Negro leagues

4 Kenesaw Mountain Landis

5 Bill Veeck and Branch Rickey

6 Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby

7 Reluctance of Boston Red Sox

8 Statistics

9 Professional baseball firsts

10 See also

11 Further reading

12 References

13 External links
Origins[edit]

Formal beginning of segregation followed the baseball season of 1867. On October 16, the Pennsylvania
State Convention of Baseball in Harrisburg denied admission to the "colored" Pythian Baseball Club.[1]

When prominent players such as Cap Anson refused to take the field with or against teams with African
Americans on the roster, it became informally accepted that African Americans were not to participate in
Major League Baseball.

Moses Fleetwood Walker of the Toledo Blue Stockings, circa 1884.

Still after 1871, formal bans existed only in minor league baseball. In 1884, in response to the Toledo
Blue Stockings of the American Association having Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first black man to play
major league baseball, on their roster, Cap Anson of the Chicago White Stockings threatened to sit out
an exhibition game with them if Walker played. Anson backed down when he learned that he would
forfeit a day's salary if he did so. In 1887 Anson, in response to the possibility of the Newark Little Giants
hiring the African American pitcher George Stovey, threatened not to play any club who had a black man
on its roster.[2]

In part due to Anson's influence and of those of other white players, on July 14, 1887, the directors of
the International League voted to prohibit the signing of additional black players – although blacks under
contract, like Frank Grant of the Buffalo Bisons and Fleet Walker of the Syracuse franchise, could remain
with their teams.[3] Grant and Walker stayed through the 1888 season.

In September 1887, eight members of the St. Louis Browns (predecessors of the current St. Louis
Cardinals) staged a mutiny during a road trip, refusing to play a game against the New York Cuban Giants,
a prominent 'Colored' team of the era. Newspapers at the time reported that, "[f]or the first time in the
history of base ball the color line has been drawn, and that by the St. Louis Browns, who have
established the precedent that white players must not play with colored men."[4]

Shortly thereafter, the American Association and the National League both unofficially banned African-
American players, making the adoption of racism in baseball complete.[3]
By 1890, the International League was all white, as it would remain until 1946 when Jackie Robinson
played for the Montreal Royals.[5]

Sub rosa efforts at integration[edit]

While professional baseball was regarded as a strictly whites-only affair, in fact the racial color bar was
directed against blacks exclusively. Other races were allowed to play in professional white baseball. One
example was Charles Albert Bender, a star pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910. Bender was the
son of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German father and had the inevitable nickname "Chief" from the
white players.[6]

As a result of this exclusive treatment of blacks, deceptive tactics were used by managers to sign African
Americans, including several attempts, with the player's acquiescence, to sign players who they knew full
well were African American as Native Americans despite the ban. In 1901, John McGraw, manager of the
Baltimore Orioles, tried to add Charlie Grant to the roster as his second baseman. He tried to get around
the Gentleman's Agreement by trying to pass him as a Cherokee Indian named Charlie Tokohama. Grant
went along with the charade. However in Chicago Grant's African American friends who came to see him
try out gave him away and Grant never got an opportunity to play ball in the big leagues.[7]

On May 28, 1916, British Columbian Jimmy Claxton temporarily broke the professional baseball color
barrier when he played two games for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. Claxton was
introduced to the team owner by a part-Native-American friend as a fellow member of an Oklahoma
tribe. The Zee-Nut candy company rushed out a baseball card for Claxton.[6] However, within a week, a
friend of Claxton revealed that he had both Negro and Native American ancestors, and Claxton was
promptly fired.[3] It would be nearly thirty more years before another black man, at least one known to
be black, played organized white baseball.

There possibly were attempts to have people of African descent be signed as Hispanics. One possible
attempt may have occurred in 1911 when the Cincinnati Reds signed two light-skinned players from
Cuba, Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida. Both of them had played "Negro Baseball," barnstorming
as members of the integrated All Cubans. When questions arose about them playing the white man's
game, the Cincinnati managers assured the public that "...they were as pure white as Castile soap."[6]

The African American newspaper New York Age had this to say about the signings:
Now that the first shock is over, it will not be surprising to see a Cuban a few shades darker breaking into
the professional ranks. It would then be easier for colored players who are citizens of this country to get
into fast company.[6]

Nonetheless, regardless of the skin tone of the Cuban players, at the very least blacks of the United
States were still banned from white baseball albeit if Marsans and Almeida were in fact black but light
skinned then their successful breaking of the color barrier has gone unheralded.[improper synthesis?]

The Negro leagues[edit]

The Negro National League was founded in 1920 by Rube Foster, independent of Organized Baseball's
National Commission (1903–1920). The NNL survived through 1931, primarily in the midwest,
accompanied by the major Eastern Colored League for several seasons to 1928. "National" and
"American" Negro leagues were established in 1933 and 1937 which persisted until integration. The
Negro Southern League operated consecutively from 1920, usually at a lower level. None of them, nor
any integrated teams, were members of Organized Baseball, the system led by Commissioner Landis
from 1921. Rather, until 1946 professional baseball in the United States was played in two racially
segregated league systems, one on each side of the so-called color line. Much of that time there were
two high-level "Negro major leagues" with a championship playoff or all-star game, as between the
white major leagues.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis[edit]

During his 1921–1944 tenure as the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis has been
alleged to have been particularly determined to maintain the segregation.[citation needed] It is possible
that he was guided by his background as a federal judge, and specifically by the then-existing
constitutional doctrine of "separate but equal" institutions (see Plessy v. Ferguson).[citation needed] He
himself maintained for many years that black players could not be integrated into the major leagues
without heavily compensating the owners of Negro league teams for what would likely result in the loss
of their investments.[citation needed] In addition, integration at the major league level would likely have
necessitated integrating the minor leagues, which were much more heavily distributed through the rural
U.S. South and Midwest.[citation needed]

Although Landis had served an important role in helping to restore the integrity of the game after the
1919 World Series scandal, his unyielding stance on the subject of baseball's color line was an
impediment. His death in late 1944 was opportune, as it resulted in the appointment of a new
Commissioner, Happy Chandler, who was much more open to integration than Landis was.
From the purely operational viewpoint, Landis' predictions on the matter would prove to be correct. The
eventual integration of baseball spelled the demise of the Negro leagues, and integration of the
southern minor leagues was a difficult challenge.[citation needed]

Bill Veeck and Branch Rickey[edit]

The only serious attempt to break the color line during Landis' tenure came in 1942, when Bill Veeck
tried to buy the then-moribund Philadelphia Phillies and stock them with Negro league stars. However,
when Landis got wind of his plans,[8] he and National League president Ford Frick scuttled it in favor of
another bid by William B. Cox.

In his autobiography, Veeck, as in Wreck, in which he discussed his abortive attempt to buy the Phillies,
Veeck also stated that he wanted to hire black players for the simple reason that in his opinion the best
black athletes "can run faster and jump higher" than the best white athletes.[9] Veeck realized that there
was no actual rule against integration; it was just an unwritten policy, a "Gentlemen's Agreement." Veeck
stated that Landis and Frick prevented him from buying and thus integrating the Phillies, on various
grounds.[citation needed]

The authors of a controversial article in the 1998 issue of SABR's The National Pastime argued that Veeck
invented the story of buying the Phillies, claiming Philadelphia's black press made no mention of a
prospective sale to Veeck.[10] Subsequently, the article was strongly challenged by the late historian
Jules Tygiel, who refuted it point-by-point in an article in the 2006 issue of SABR's The Baseball Research
Journal,[11] and in an appendix, entitled “Did Bill Veeck Lie About His Plan to Purchase the ’43 Phillies?,”
published in Paul Dickson’s biography, Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick.[12] Joseph Thomas
Moore wrote in his biography of Doby, "Bill Veeck planned to buy the Philadelphia Phillies with the as yet
unannounced intention of breaking that color line."[13] Ironically, the Phillies ended up being the last
National League team, and third-last team in the majors, to integrate, with John Kennedy debuting for
the Phillies in 1957, 15 years after Veeck's attempted purchase.

Around 1945, Branch Rickey, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, held tryouts of black players,
under the cover story of forming a new team called the "Brooklyn Brown Dodgers." The Dodgers were, in
fact, looking for the right man to break the color line. Rickey had an advantage in that he was already an
employee of the Dodgers. Also, Landis had died by this time and new commissioner Happy Chandler was
more supportive of integrating the major leagues.
Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby[edit]

The color line was breached when Rickey, with Chandler's support, signed the African American player
Jackie Robinson in November 1945, intending him to play for the Dodgers. Chandler later wrote in his
biography that although he risked losing his job as commissioner, he could not in good conscience tell
blacks they could not play with whites when they had fought alongside them in World War II.[citation
needed]

After a year in the minor leagues with the Dodgers' top minor-league affiliate, the Montreal Royals of the
International League, Robinson was called up to the Dodgers in 1947. He endured epithets and death
threats and got off to a slow start. However, his athleticism and skill earned him the first ever Rookie of
the Year award, which is now named in his honor.

Less well-known was Larry Doby, who signed with Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians that same year to
become the American League's first African American player. Doby, a more low-key figure than Robinson,
suffered many of the same indignities that Robinson did, albeit with less press coverage. As baseball
historian Daniel Okrent wrote, "Robinson had a two year drum roll, Doby just showed up."[14] Both men
were ultimately elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the merits of their play. Due to their success,
teams gradually integrated African Americans on their rosters.

Prior to the integration of the major leagues, the Brooklyn Dodgers led the integration of the minor
leagues. Jackie Robinson and Johnny Wright were assigned to Montreal, but also that season Don
Newcombe and Roy Campanella became members of the Nashua Dodgers in the class-B New England
League. Nashua was the first minor-league team based in the United States to integrate its roster after
1898. Subsequently that season, the Pawtucket Slaters, the Boston Braves' New England League
franchise, also integrated its roster, as did Brooklyn's class-C franchise in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. With
one exception, the rest of the minor leagues would slowly integrate as well, including those based in the
southern United States. The Carolina League, for example, integrated in 1951 when the Danville Leafs
signed Percy Miller Jr. to their team.

The exception was the Class AA Southern Association. Founded in 1901 and based in the Deep South, it
allowed only one black player, Nat Peeples of the 1954 Atlanta Crackers, a brief appearance in the
league. Peeples went hitless in two games played and four at bats on April 9–10, 1954, was demoted one
classification to the Jacksonville Braves of the Sally League, and the SA reverted to whites-only status. As
a result, its major-league parent clubs were forced to field all-white teams during the 1950s. By the end
of the 1950s, the SA also was boycotted by civil rights leaders. The Association finally ceased operation
after the 1961 season, still a bastion of segregation. Its member teams joined the International, Sally and
Texas leagues, which were all racially integrated.

Reluctance of Boston Red Sox[edit]

The Boston Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate, holding out until 1959.[15] This was
allegedly due to the steadfast resistance provided by team owner Tom Yawkey. In April 1945, the Red Sox
refused to consider signing Jackie Robinson (and future Boston Braves outfielder Sam Jethroe) after
giving him a brief tryout at Fenway Park.[15] Robinson would later call Yawkey "one of the most bigoted
guys in baseball".[16]

Boston city councilor Isadore Muchnick further spurred the Robinson tryout by threatening to revoke the
team's exemption from Sunday blue laws.[citation needed] The segregation policy was enforced by
Yawkey's general managers: Eddie Collins (through 1947), and Joe Cronin (1948–58). A pennant winning
team in 1946, the year before integration, the Red Sox would perpetually fail to make the playoffs for the
next twenty seasons, with implications being that Boston shut itself out by ignoring the expanded talent
pool of black players.

On April 7, 1959 during spring training, Yawkey, and General Manager Bucky Harris were named in a
lawsuit charging them with discrimination and the deliberate barring of blacks from the Red Sox.[17] The
NAACP issued charges of "following an anti-Negro policy", and the Massachusetts Commission Against
Discrimination announced a public hearing on racial bias against the Red Sox.[18] Thus, the Red Sox were
forced to integrate, becoming the last pre-expansion major-league team to do so when Harris promoted
Pumpsie Green from Boston's AAA farm club. On July 21, Green debuted for the team as a pinch runner,
and would be joined later that season by Earl Wilson, the second black player to play for the Red Sox.[19]
In the early to mid 1960s, the team added other players of color to their roster including Joe Foy, Jose
Santiago, George Scott, George Smith, and Reggie Smith. The 1967 Red Sox went on to win the
"Impossible Dream" pennant but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the 1967 World Series.

Tom Yawkey died in 1976, and his widow Jean Yawkey eventually sold the team to Haywood Sullivan and
Edward "Buddy" LeRoux. As chief executive, Haywood Sullivan found himself in another racial wrangle
that ended in a courtroom. The Elks Club of Winter Haven, Florida, the Red Sox spring training home, did
not permit black members or guests. Yet the Red Sox allowed the Elks into their clubhouse to distribute
dinner invitations to the team's white players, coaches, and business management. When the African-
American Tommy Harper, a popular former player and coach for Boston, then working as a minor league
instructor, protested the policy and a story appeared in the Boston Globe, he was promptly fired. Harper
sued the Red Sox for racial discrimination and his complaint was upheld on July 1, 1986.[20]

Statistics[edit]

Blacks in American baseball[21][22]

Year Major leagues Population Ratio

1959 17% 11% 3:2

1975 27% 11% 5:2

1995 19% 12% 3:2

The under-representation of blacks in U.S. baseball ended during the early years of the Civil rights
movement.

Professional baseball firsts[edit]

player, professional: Bud Fowler, 1878. Fowler never played in the major leagues.

player, major leagues: Moses Fleetwood Walker, debut game May 1, 1884, catcher for Toledo at
Louisville

all-black team, openly professional: Cuban Giants, 1885

first professional league in the U.S. to be integrated: California Winter League, 1910

all-black team in a minor league:

pitcher, major leagues: Dan Bankhead, debut game August 26, 1947, for Brooklyn at home[23]

All-Star selection: Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, Jackie Robinson, 1949[24]

Most Valuable Player, major leagues: Jackie Robinson, 1949

field manager, level AAA: Héctor López, 1969

nine-man lineup, major leagues: Pittsburgh Pirates, 1971

first black coach, major leagues: Buck O'Neil, Chicago Cubs, 1962

field manager, major leagues: Frank Robinson, debut game April 8, 1975, for Cleveland at home *

general manager, major leagues: Bill Lucas, 1976

First World Series winning field manager: Cito Gaston 1992 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He repeated the
next season.

First National League field manager to manage a World Series: Dusty Baker 2002 with the San Francisco
Giants.