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MLB founding
Major League Baseball was founded in 1867, in Cincinnati, OH. This was the first National League of Professional Baseball. -
Period: to
MLB sees its first black professional baseball player.
the time a professional baseball league was founded to when America saw its first black baseball player. -
Early years of black baseball players
Shortly after the MLB was founded a "color barrier" was immediately enforced, seeing as racial injustices were at an all-time high in the coming two decades. Many blacks in baseball were only allowed to play in the minor leagues with little to no promise of a real professional career. -
Jackie Robinson makes headway
This day Jackie Robinson becomes the first black major league baseball player in nearly 80 years. He was the first since the league started, making a path for other black males in baseball. -
Bill White first black baseman
Bill White starts his rookie career in 1953 in Phoenix. Later getting his MLB debut with the Giants in July of 1958. Bill became the first black baseman soon becoming the first black play-by-play announcer. To finally get elected the president of the National League in 1989. -
The ending of an era
By the late 1950s, more than 150 African-American baseball players have been signed to Major League Baseball. With little to no ticket sales and a lack of good players, the era of African-American baseball comes to an end.