Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Because black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism in the United States, they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s.
The first known baseball game between two black teams was held on November 15, 1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens, defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn
The first nationally known black professional baseball team was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants.
Also in 1888, Frank Leland got some of Chicago's black businessmen to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club. Through Chicago's city government, Leland obtained a permit and lease to play at the South Side Park, a 5,000 seat facility. Eventually his team went pro and became the Chicago Unions.
Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the first two black players in the major league
Though research by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) indicates William Edward White was the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues, Walker, unlike White (who passed as a white man), was the first to be open about his black heritage, and to face the racial bigotry so prevalent in the late 19th century United States.
His brother, Weldy, became the second black athlete to do likewise later in the same year, also for the Toledo ball club. Walker played just one season, 42 games total, for Toledo before injuries entailed his release.
amazon.com/Wings-Fly-Jarnell-Stokes/dp/1734245204
Because black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism in the United States, they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s.
The first known baseball game between two black teams was held on November 15, 1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens, defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn
The first nationally known black professional baseball team was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants.
Also in 1888, Frank Leland got some of Chicago's black businessmen to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club. Through Chicago's city government, Leland obtained a permit and lease to play at the South Side Park, a 5,000 seat facility. Eventually his team went pro and became the Chicago Unions.
Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the first two black players in the major league
Though research by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) indicates William Edward White was the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues, Walker, unlike White (who passed as a white man), was the first to be open about his black heritage, and to face the racial bigotry so prevalent in the late 19th century United States.
His brother, Weldy, became the second black athlete to do likewise later in the same year, also for the Toledo ball club. Walker played just one season, 42 games total, for Toledo before injuries entailed his release.
