Toledo team with Moses Fleetwood Walker, Toledo, Ohio


American Association baseball team with Moses Fleetwood Walker, 1884

Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The Philadelphia Giants with player-manager Sol White (standing, third from right) and pitcher Rube Foster (standing, second from left), 1904


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The Philadelphia Giants were an outstanding turn-of-the century black team. When Rube Foster joined them in 1904, he led them to the World's Colored Championship over the Cuban X Giants. Rube Foster went on to pioneer the first successful professional black baseball league, the Negro National League, in 1920.

St. Paul Gophers, c. 1909


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The St. Paul Gophers were one of several independent, all-black teams to proclaim themselves "Colored World Champions" of 1909.

The Chicago American Giants, 1920


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The Chicago American Giants with Hall of Famers Rube Foster (back row, center) and Cristobal Torriente (back row, far left).

Baseball autographed by the Kansas City Monarchs


Winners of the 1924 World's Colored Championship

Photo by Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Belt buckle celebrating Hilldale's Eastern Colored League Championship, 1923


Photo by Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The Hilldales, based in suburban Philadelphia, won the Eastern Colored League Championship three straight years from 1923 to 1925.

The Kansas City Monarchs, 1924


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The Kansas City Monarchs, champions of the Negro National League, beat the Hilldales, champions of the Eastern Colored League, in the first World's Colored Championship in 1924.

Broadside advertising the Kansas City Monarchs' portable lighting system, c. 1930


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The Kansas City Monarchs, one of the first baseball teams to hold night games, traveled with their own generators and light stands. By moving games to times when more people could attend, they greatly increased gate receipts.

The East squad from the 1939 East-West Game, with Buck Leonard (back row, far left) and Josh Gibson (back row, third from right)


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

Beginning in 1933, the East-West Game put the best players of the Negro leagues in the spotlight at Chicago's Comiskey Park. The game drew as many as 50,000 spectators. Chicago hosted the last East-West Game in 1953.

Frank Robinson, major league baseball's first African-American manager


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

Frank Robinson made baseball history when he was selected by the Cleveland Indians as their manager in 1975. The first African-American manager in the major leagues, Robinson went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles, the Montreal Expos and the Washington Nationals.

Emmett Ashford, first black umpire in the major leagues


Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

In 1966, Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire in baseball's major leagues. Ashford worked in the American League from 1966 to 1970.