Negro Baseball Leagues Baseball is known as America’s pastime. Americans grow up playing catch, competing on little league teams and whiling away the hours at the ballpark, watching their favorite team while eating peanuts and nachos. Today, kids idolize baseball players of all races and of many different nationalities. However, baseball wasn’t always so inclusive. Most everyone knows the story of Jackie Robinson and his role in desegregating major league baseball, since its segregation in 1889. While Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers was a turning point in the history of baseball, the history of African Americans and baseball goes back much farther—all the way to the end of the Civil War. The formation of Negro Baseball Leagues was a turning point in black history long before Jackie Robinson ever took the field. Browse the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s collections and learn about Philadelphia’s own African American teams, the Philadelphia Pythians (later the Philadelphia Giants) and the Philadelphia Stars. Search Terms: Philadelphia Stars; Philadelphia Giants; Octavius Catto; Philadelphia Pythians; Negro National League; Negro American League; Hilldale Athletic Club; Jacob C. White, Jr.; International League of Colored Baseball Clubs in American and Cuba (ILBCAC)

Recommended Collections: Leon Gardner/American Negro Historical Society, Collection # 8A, Box 8G

GV 865 .A1 D54 2007 DiFiore, Anthony. Shadow Game : The Philadelphia Pythians and 19th Century African American Baseball. Media, Pa.: Anthony DiFiore, 2007.

GV867.3.H8x Huckstep, Joan., and Pa.) Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum (Philadelphia. White Ball, Black Ball : The Story of the Negro League Baseball, a Gallery Chat Book. [Philadelphia, Pa.: Afro-American Museum, 1985.

GV865.A1 H614 1988. Holway, John. Blackball Stars : Negro League Pioneers. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1988.

REF GV875.A1 L68 2003 Loverro, Thom., and Wilmer Fields. The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball. New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2003.

*Additional information can be found in the Afro-Americana collection in the PC6 card catalog.

Other Sources of Information: African American Museum in Philadelphia – 701 Arch Street, Philadelphia – www.aampmuseum.org Negro Leagues Baseball Museum eMuseum - http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/nlbemuseum.html