Negro League Baseball
The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
by Neil Lanctot

Description:

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history:  the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.

Negro League Baseball:  The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents. Neil Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.

Negro League Baseball
The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
by Neil Lanctot

ISBN: 9780812220278
ISBN-10: 0812220277
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Publication Date: 2008
Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Book Type: New

This book is also available in a Hardcover edition: Negro League Baseball [HC]