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From This Collection

What happened after baseball integrated

Apr 30, 2024
When the Negro Leagues disbanded, there were winners and losers.
The Newark Eagles won the Negro World Series in 1946. Two years later, the team was sold and relocated to Houston and then to New Orleans. The team folded in 1951.
Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

The team owner who fought for civil rights

Apr 23, 2024
Effa Manley, owner of the Newark Eagles, firmly believed her team’s success was tied to the ongoing struggle for justice in her community.
Effa Manley mixed business and activism as co-owner of the Newark Eagles, a Negro National League team.
Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images

Negro Leagues barnstorming brought baseball to new places

It's just one of the lasting economic legacies of the professional baseball played in the Negro Leagues in the 20th century.
Teams that played in the Negro Leagues often had no choice but to hit the road and play games all over. They relied on this practice, known as barnstorming, to keep the money coming in. Pictured above: The Newark Eagles in a dugout in 1936.
Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

How baseball's Negro Leagues became successful business enterprises

"It was sailing against the tide of oppression," Negro Leagues Baseball Museum co-founder Larry Lester says.
Andrew "Rube" Foster founded the Chicago American Giants, pictured here in 1941. Foster organized the Negro National League, the first league for Black baseball players that survived a whole season.
Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

At-will employment and creative destruction

Apr 16, 2024
David Brancaccio’s economic lessons from “The League.”
Jackie Robinson in the 1950s.
Robert Riger/Getty Images

Meet the first Black baseball players

Apr 8, 2024
We're watching “The League,” a documentary about the contributions that Black baseball players and the Negro Leagues made to America’s pastime.
A magazine cover featuring Jackie Robinson in 1952.
Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images

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