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On the Other Side of the Color Barrier: Segregation and the Negro Leagues
Further Reading

Chadwick, Bruce. When the Game was Black and White: the Illustrated History of Baseball's Negro Leagues . New York: Abbeville Press, 1992.

Contains photographs on every page and includes quotes from former Negro League players. Includes a "What if…" section in the back of the book with projected statistics if baseball had never been segregated.

Holway, John B. Black Diamonds. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1989.

Collection of 12 personal interviews of former Negro League players. Interviews are followed by the players' statistics. Back of book contains list of the leading players in the Negro Leagues from 1923-1948.

Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball was White. New York: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1970.

Provides a history of Negro baseball from its beginnings following the Civil War to integration of the Major Leagues. Part IV contains brief biographies of sixty lesser-known Negro League players

Rust, Art. Get that Nigger off the Field. New York: Delacorte Press, 1992.

Collection of interviews with former Negro League players. Contains fascinating reminiscences of the time period and of the Negro Leagues. Main reference for the primary source excerpts included in this lesson plan. Appendix B contains statistics comparing the batting and pitching statistics of white, black and Latin players from 1947 to 1967. Appendix C lists various black "firsts" in Major League Baseball.


Web Sites

Baseball and Jackie Robinson: About the Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/jrhtml/jrabout.html

This collection, fully titled Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson, pulls together historical materials from different sections of the Library of Congress. You can browse it using a timeline segmented into five different periods: Drawing the Color Line (1860s-1890s), Barnstorming & the Negro Leagues (1900-1930s), Breaking the Color Line (1940-1946), Robinson as a Dodger (1947-1956), and Robinson's Later Career (1956-1972).

Homestead, PA History- Homestead Grays http://www.15122.com/HOMESTEADHISTORY/grays.htm

Brief history of the Homestead Grays. Includes 6 photographs of Homestead teams and players, plus one photo of a ticket from a 1949 game.

MLB.com- Negro Leagues http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/mlb_negro_leagues.jsp

Major League Baseball web site includes an extensive section on the Negro Leagues under the heading history. Contains biographies, articles on barnstorming and segregation, a photo gallery and a section with audio and video interviews with former players.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum http://www.baseballhalloffame.org

Baseball Hall of Fame site which contains several primary sources on the Negro Leagues: a 1957 article on the demise of the Negro Leagues, a cartoon commenting on southern reaction to Jackie Robinson, and a 1930 picture of the Homestead Gray's

Negro League Baseball http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com

This homage to the Negro Leagues features news, feature articles, team and player profiles, plus an active discussion group.

Negro League Baseball Player Association http://www.nlbpa.com/

Official web page of the Negro League Baseball Players Association. Contains bios of over 300 former Negro League baseball players and information on over 40 different teams. Site features recent Negro League news including interviews with living former players. Has links to related sites.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. A Century of Segregation I PBS http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/segregation2.html

This site is highly recommended for teachers to put the events of this lesson plan into a larger societal context. It features a timeline highlighting historical events regarding segregation and civil rights [e.g. Emancipation Proclamation (1863), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and Brown v. Board of Education (1954)], including Jackie Robinson's feat of playing in the major leagues and breaking a color barrier in baseball (1947).


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