History of African-Americans in Baseball

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1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which guarantee basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race (Cozzens). These acts helped African-Americans to remove their status as second-class citizens in American, but they were still faced with racism for the years to come. During this time, African-Americans were facing the same issues in baseball. Baseball is considered an American pastime, but to understand the history of African-Americans in baseball, one must understand the origin of the sport.
The origin of baseball dates to the early 1800s and is based on the English version of the game called rounders. Rounders was played similarly to today's baseball with the exception of a few rules. One of the exceptions is the determination of how a person was considered out before reaching the base. In rounders, a person was put out by hitting him with the ball, while in baseball a person is out when a baseman tags the base or the person (“Baseball: Origins”). In the mid ...

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opponents due to his race (Dixon). Race tensions were high just after the Civil War between whites and blacks in baseball as well as in America. American baseball continued to grow as did the participation of African-American baseball players. George Stovey and Bud Fowler were two of the great African-American baseball players during the nineteenth century. They played on dozens of team all across the country and became stars on their respected teams. These men were baseball stars, but they faced the same racism as other African-Americans in the United States. Bud Fowler was born in Cooperstown, New York, which is the home of baseball’s Hall of Fame. He was forced off several teams ...

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