The first Negro National League (NNL I) was a major professional baseball organization that laid the foundation for Black baseball in the early twentieth century. From 1920 to 1931, during the period of time when organized baseball in the United States was segregated, the league served as the highest level of competition for African American athletes. Several of the most influential players and owners during this era gained a platform because of the league, whose careers helped define the cultural significance of future negro leagues. The league also helped establish a structured system for Black baseball that influenced later Negro Leagues and increased national recognition of Black athletes.
During the hardships of the Great Depression, the NNL eventually collapsed, but the impact it left contributed to a broader perspective on Black baseball.
League history
Founding
thumb|right|220px|Rube Foster, 1924, NNL League President
Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the Negro National League (NNL) was established on February 13, 1920, during a meeting of team owners at a YMCA in Kansas City.[1] The league’s formation included the development of a formal constitution, written by journalist Cary B. Lewis, David Wyatt of the Indianapolis Ledger, Elwood C. Knox of the Indianapolis Freeman, and attorney Elisha Scott.[2][3]
The new league became the first African American baseball circuit to achieve lasting stability and operate successfully for more than one season. In its early years, the league was primarily based in Midwestern cities, stretching from Kansas City in the west to Pittsburgh in the east. By 1924, the NNL expanded into the South, adding teams in Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Competition
The two most important East Coast clubs, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, and the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, were affiliated with the NNL as associate teams from 1920 to 1922, but they did not compete for the league championship. In 1923, these teams joined four other eastern teams to form the Eastern Colored League (ECL). This new league attracted many of the NNL’s top players, including John Henry Lloyd, Biz Mackey, George Scales, George Carr, and Clint Thomas, while also signing Oscar Charleston and Rube Curry in 1924. The rivalry between the two leagues ended in 1924 when both agreed to honor each other’s contracts and established the Colored World Series between their champions.
Difficulties and demise
The NNL survived controversies over umpiring, scheduling, and what some perceived as league president Rube Foster's disproportionate influence and favoritism toward his own team. Tension arose amongst team owners, but this was only a small part of the major struggles surrounding Black baseball at the time. Players traveled under difficult conditions and were often forced to sleep on buses or in Black boarding houses because segregation kept them out of most hotels and restaurants. Along with that, owners juggled unstable finances and the constant risk that a team might fold at any time. Through these hardships, the league kept going, even after Foster's fall into mental illness and his withdrawal from the league in 1926. It also outlasted its main competitor in the east, the ECL, which folded in early 1928 after years of financial and organizational struggles.
The Negro National League was operated by unequal funding and a constant lack of resources that were often easily accessible to white baseball teams. Traveling through cities for the players was not only tiring, but it also wore them down in every other way possible. Teams would have to spend long stretches of the season on the road and sometimes would play in several cities in the same week because extra games were often their only way of bringing in enough money to keep on playing. Regardless of their status, they would carry their own bags and sleep sitting up on buses. They also depended on supportive black families to take them in when local hotels would deny service to them.
The financial problems that team owners dealt with were just as overwhelming as the challenges that the players faced because running a Negro National League meant making constant adjustments to whatever situation came up. Nothing about the business side of the league was stable. Teams were usually stuck with weekday games or unusual times that made it harder for fans to show us because owners had to secure playing fields from white major or minor league teams. A rainy day could wipe out all of the money they were depending on. Small crowds for a stretch of home games could push a franchise dangerously close to shutting down. Even the owners of well known teams suck as the Kansas City Monarchs or the St. Louis Stars had to manage baseball with other jobs or businesses to keep their clubs alive. The financial cushion that while baseball enjoyed including corporate sponsors and steady media coverage never existed in the NNL. Because ticket sales were the main source of income, every game felt like a financial gamble, and one bad week could undo months of progress.
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1921
| align="left" style=" |Chicago American Giants (2) || align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1922
| align="left" style=" |Chicago American Giants (3) || align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1923
| align="left" style=" |Kansas City Monarchs || align="left" |<br /> ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1924
| align="left" style=" |Kansas City Monarchs (2) || align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1925†
| align="left" style="|Kansas City Monarchs (3) || align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1926†
| align="left" style="|Chicago American Giants (4) || align="left" |<br />||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1927†
| align="left" style="|Chicago American Giants (5)|| align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1928†
| align="left" style="|St. Louis Stars|| align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1929
| align="left" style=" |Kansas City Monarchs (4)|| align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1930†
| align="left" style="#d0e7ff" |St. Louis Stars (2)|| align="left" |||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1931
| align="left" style=" |St. Louis Stars (3)|| align="left" |||
|}
† – Pennant was decided via a split-season schedule with the winner of the first half of the season playing the winner of the second half of the season, unless one team won both halves.
League play-offs
From 1925 through 1931, the NNL split the season into two halves. The winner of the first half played the winner of the second half for the league Pennant. As mentioned above, disputes also occurred in the split season finishes. 1929 and 1931 saw Kansas City win both halves.
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="font-size:1.00em; line-height:1.5em;"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Winning team
! scope="col" | Games
! scope="col" | Losing team
! scope="col" | Reference
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1925
| align="left" style=" |Kansas City Monarchs <small>(first half)</small> || 4–3|| St. Louis Stars <small>(second half)</small> ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1926
| align="left" style=" |Chicago American Giants <small>(second half)</small> || 5–4|| Kansas City Monarchs <small>(first half)</small> ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1927
| align="left" style=" |Chicago American Giants <small>(first half)</small> || 4–1|| Birmingham Black Barons <small>(second half)</small> ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1928
| align="left" style=" |St. Louis Stars <small>(first half)</small> || 5–4|| Chicago American Giants <small>(second half)</small> ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1930
| align="left" style=" |St. Louis Stars <small>(first half)</small> || 4–3|| Detroit Stars <small>(second half)</small> ||
|-
|}
Colored World Series
For the duration of the league, a Colored World Series took place four times, from 1924 through 1927. The NNL Pennant winner met the champion of the rival Eastern Colored League. Three out of the four years, the Negro National League team (below in bold) won.
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="font-size:1.00em; line-height:1.5em;"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Winning team
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Games
! scope="col" | Losing team
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1924
| align="left" style="background:" |Kansas City Monarchs|| 5–4–(1)|| align="left" style="background:" |Hilldale Club
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1925
| align="left" style="background:" |Hilldale Club|| 5–1|| align="left" style="background:" |Kansas City Monarchs
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1926
| align="left" style="background:" |Chicago American Giants|| 5–4–(2)|| align="left" style="background:" |Bacharach Giants
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1927
| align="left" style="background:" |Chicago American Giants || 5–3–(1)|| align="left" style="background:" |Bacharach Giants
|}
;Legend
- Denotes a tied game.
References
External links
- League history and statistics from seamheads.com