outside shot of YMCA building in Missouri

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023 - FEBRUARY 13TH - NEGRO LEAGUES ARE BORN

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By Teambrown ApparelFeb 13, 2023

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February 13, 1920, Andrew “Rube” Foster and his fellow team owners created the Negro National League.

Black players like Moses Fleetwood Walker, Bud Fowler and Frank Grant had played previously, but it was more of a Barnstorming existence and not a formal league. All of that changed when Rube Foster then the owner of the Chicago American Giants would persuade his fellow owners to convene in Kansas City at the YMCA to discuss the prospect of a colored baseball league.

Featuring teams in Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis, the NNL adopted the slogan, “We Are the Ship, All Else the Sea” as a pledge to set its own course.

The league would showcase such immortals as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson, and baseball would forever be changed.