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Black History Month: 28 Days; 28 Facts. FACT NO. 13: On this date in Black History – February 13, 1920 – Andrew "Rube" Foster organizes The Negro Baseball League, the first Black baseball league..
...Foster was born in Calvert, Texas, on September 17, 1879. The son of Andrew and Sarah Foster, Rube started a baseball tradition that would be followed by his brother Willie Bill Foster...
...Rube quit school after the eighth grade, barnstorming with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team in 1897. By 1902, Foster's baseball abilities gave him an opportunity to play with the Chicago Union Giants...
...After a short stint with Union Giants, Foster played for the Cuban X-Giants.
Foster sometimes played with white semi-pro teams and exhibition games against white players, establishing himself as a premier pitcher and challenging major league pitchers such as Rube Waddell...
Foster sometimes played with white semi-pro teams and exhibition games against white players, establishing himself as a premier pitcher and challenging major league pitchers such as Rube Waddell...
...Chief Bender, Mordecai Brown, and Cy Young.
However, perhaps Foster’s greatest claim to fame was that he gave birth to the Negro National League baseball league.
Blacks began to play baseball in the late 1800s on military teams, college teams, and company teams...
However, perhaps Foster’s greatest claim to fame was that he gave birth to the Negro National League baseball league.
Blacks began to play baseball in the late 1800s 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...
...Black players formed their own units, “barnstorming” around the country to play anyone who would challenge them.
Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants, proposed a “league structure” at a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo...
Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants, proposed a “league structure” at a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo...
...He 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...
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.
These leagues thrived until Major League Baseball integrated in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, formerly of the...
These leagues thrived until Major League Baseball integrated in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, formerly of the...
...Kansas City Monarchs, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Soon, the best black players in the country would now be recruited by the Major Leagues, and black fans followed, sealing the fate of the Negro Leagues.
The last Negro Leagues teams folded in the early 1960s,...
The last Negro Leagues teams folded in the early 1960s,...
...but their legacy lives on through the surviving players and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM), the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its impact on the social advancement of America...
...Andrew Rube Foster was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.
SOURCES: Black Past, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/foster-andrew-rube-1879-1930/
Black Past, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/negro-baseball-leagues-1920-1950/
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, https://nlbm.com/negro-leagues-history/
SOURCES: Black Past, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/foster-andrew-rube-1879-1930/
Black Past, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/negro-baseball-leagues-1920-1950/
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, https://nlbm.com/negro-leagues-history/
