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-
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- The
Topic:
- Negro
Baseball Leagues
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- Easier - If you've
ever watched a professional baseball game, you
probably saw people of all races playing together.
This wasn't always true. In the late 1800s and
early 1900s, African American players were not
accepted on major league baseball teams. They had
their own teams known as Negro Baseball
Leagues.
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- Harder - For
almost a century, African American baseball players
were barred from the major leagues because of their
skin color. In December 1867, the National
Association of Ball Players voted not to accept a
team with black athletes. In those early days a few
black players did play on integrated minor league
teams. But by the turn of the twentieth century,
black players were entirely shut out of white
professional baseball until 1946 and the end of
World War II. Then Jackie Robinson broke the 'color
line' becoming the first African American to play
in the major leagues.
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- Black players played on black teams that
represented black communities. The teams were
organized into black leagues, and competed for
championships. In 1920, Rube Foster founded the
Negro National League in Kansas City, Kansas. It
was joined by the Eastern Colored League in 1923.
In 1937 the Negro American League was formed.
Through the years, Negro leagues overcame
hardships, were reformed and replaced, grew and
sometimes flourished. Players endured segregated,
second-rate wages and playing conditions . . . but
their competition and play was first-rate, major
league! In fact when matched up against white major
league opponents, the black teams won over sixty
percent of the games.
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- In the 1920s, a crowd of 5,000 spectators for a
Sunday game was normal. The heart of the leagues
were the emerging Northern ghettos (Pittsburgh
Crawfords, New York Black Yankees, Newark Eagles,
Chicago American Giants) with a smattering of
Southern teams (Birmingham Black Barons,
Jacksonville Red Caps, Atlanta Black Crackers). By
the Thirties, a doubleheader night card could draw
up to twenty thousand fans. Before the breakdown of
the segregated leagues, the Negro leagues were
among the largest black businesses in the U.S.
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- The last of the Negro leagues struggled on
until 1960 with only a fraction of their former
support and prestige. By then the best African
American players were in the former white major
leagues.
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- Negro
Baseball Leagues
- http://www.blackbaseball.com/
- Learn about the origins of the Negro
Baseball Leagues; what they were, why they were
founded, and why they no longer exist.
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- Negro
Baseball Leagues
- http://www.bonus.com/bonus/card/negro_baseball.html
- Baseball was a
segregated sport in the early 1900s - whites
played in the Major Leagues, and Blacks played
in the Negro Leagues. Read about the great
players and teams who were not allowed to play
in the Majors, or join the Hall of Fame, simply
because of the color of their skin.
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- Negro
League Baseball
- http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/
- Here you find feature articles, the latest
news, player profiles and much more about the
Negro Leagues.
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- Shadowball:
Recalling the Negro Leagues
- http://www.negro-league.columbus.oh.us/
- Learn about the
origin, the players, and the teams of the Negro
Leagues.
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- After visiting several of the
websites, complete one or more of these
activities:
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- Complete a Negro Baseball Leagues
WebQuest. Adapt or follow the
instructions found at the following
webQuest site:
- 1) Sampling Negro Baseball Leagues
by Becky Lehenbauer (Grade 6)
- http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/blehenba1/shadow/sampler.htm
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- Create a Negro League Baseball
Card. Visit the websites and read some
of the biographies of players. Make a
baseball card, including a brief biography
and picture. Don't forget to include the
player statistics on the backside.
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- Make a Team Poster. Pick your
favorite team. Then create a poster using
their team name, a logo, game dates and
locations. Promote their star
players and attract spectators.
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- Write a Player Biography. Pick
a favorite player. Research their history
and record of play. Then write a biography
about them. Include pictures and your own
drawings. Share the information that you
learn.
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- Website By Kids
For Kids
- Shadowball:
The Story of the Negro
Leagues (1996 ThinkQuest
Project)
- http://library.thinkquest.org/3427/
- This website is
designed to teach everybody about the Negro
Leagues. It includes information about the
players, the teams, an exclusive interview, a
timeline, and much more.
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- More Sites
- David
Marasco's Negro Leagues Page
- http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~dmarasco/david.html
- This site has a collection of original
articles written about the Negro Leagues and its
players.
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- Negro
Baseball Leagues
- http://www.coe.ilstu.edu/rpriegle/eaf228/sdross/
- From 1871 up to Jackie
Robinson's debut, black athletes played in
several Negro Major Leagues of varying success.
Learn about the men that played and never got
paid!
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- Negro
Leagues Baseball Museum (Kansas City, Missouri)
- http://www.nlbm.com/intro.html
- The museum was first opened in January,
1991.
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- Sacrifice
Play: The Negro Baseball Leagues
Remembered by David
Conrads
- http://www.worldandi.com/archive/clfeb.htm
- Decades after their
demise, the Negro baseball leagues are beginning
to be recognized for their contributions to
black America's social and economic
progress.
- Similar Online
Articles:
- 2) Negro Baseball by
Robert Harrison http://www.wshs.fcps.k12.va.us/projects/im98/im981/spo.htm
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- Websites for Teachers
- Black
Baseball (Grade 4 -8)
- http://www.nashua-plainfield.k12.ia.us/npwebsite/nashelem/classroompages/fifthgrade/wmsww/blackbas
- eball/Black%20Baseball.html
- This unit allows students to explore the
people of the Negro Baseball League and the
significance of Jackie Robinson.
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- Take
Them Out to the Ball Game! at Education World
(Grade 5 and up)
- http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson107.shtml
- When baseball fever strikes, these
activities from Education World can be the
perfect antidote. Included: A stadium full of
activities and links to team sites, baseball
math sites, cross-curricular projects -- and
even the famous Abbott and Costello "Who's On
First?" script!
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- Sampling
Negro Baseball Leagues by Becky Lehenbauer
(Grade 6)
- http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/blehenba1/shadow/sampler.htm#intro
- Use this Subject Sampler to help literature
and reading students learn about black baseball
leagues.
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1920
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Jackie
Robinson
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'windy'
|
oral history
|
discrimination
|
integration
|
Josh Gibson
|
bus
|
racism
|
Satchel
Paige
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'clowning'
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Walter 'Buck' Leonard
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civil
rights
|
baseball
|
'color line'
|
team
|
'shadowball'
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player
|
segregation
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Andrew "Rube" Foster
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Oscar Charleston
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'Cool Pappa' Bell
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'barnstorming'
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Ted 'Double Duty' Radcliffe
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William Julius 'Judy'
Johnson
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Kansas City, KS
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'Smokey' Joe Williams
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Ray Dandridge
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'separate-but-unequal'
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'independent baseball'
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Negro National League
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Eastern Colored League
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Negro American League
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minor league
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National Association of Ball
Players
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major league
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-
- Created by
Annette
Lamb and
Larry
Johnson,
1/99
- Updated,
6/00
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