Sol White's History of Colored Baseball with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886–1936 - Softcover

White, Sol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803297831 ISBN 13: 9780803297838

Publisher: Bison Books, 1996

Synopsis

America and baseball are rediscovering the game played by African Americans before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. We now know a great deal about the Negro Leagues of 1920 on, and their great stars—Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and their contemporaries.

But what of the pre-1920 black game? From the onset in the 1880s of the “gentleman’s agreement” that barred blacks from playing in white leagues, that game is nearly invisible. Financially shaky, with sporadic media coverage even in black newspapers and completely overlooked by the mainstream, Negro teams of this era played on for love of the game and in hopes that their skills would receive their due.

In 1907, Sol White, a remarkable African-American ballplayer, successful manager, and baseball loyalist, wrote a small volume on the history of the black game. Part fund-raising effort, advertising brochure, team hype, celebration of black baseball, and throughout an implicit and explicit challenge to racism, Sol White’s History of Colored Base Ball is the source of much of what we know of the events in the organized black game of that time.

The original was poorly printed, and copies are exceedingly rare (known and rumored copies number only four). This edition republishes the full 1907 edition (with the even rarer supplement), completely reset for legibility, and reproduces all the original’s illustrations, including the advertisements that speak volumes on the social world of the day. Fifteen additional documents from 1886 to 1936 augment the picture of the black game and our record of Sol White himself.

About this title

Review

A remarkable--if forgotten--figure in baseball history, Sol White played both infield and outfield with storied success for organized teams in both integrated and "Colored" leagues all over the East Coast and Midwest in the 1880s and 1890s. Yet it's what he did off the field--compile this absorbing and detailed history of blacks in early baseball, first published in 1907--that cemented his importance to the game. His record--vividly written and well illustrated with contemporary photos--preserves the feats of the forgotten men like White himself, George Stovey, Home Run Johnson, Charles Grant, Kid Carter, and Rube Foster, who were short only on Major League opportunity, not talent.

What makes this such a revealing document, archival necessity, and historical curiosity is how accepted the idea of a separate baseball universe was almost from baseball's organized start, and how hard White worked to make sure its accomplishments wouldn't just disappear unrecorded; the purpose of his History was to celebrate, advertise, and raise money for this separate universe. It's not a sociology text, though it will provide a grand slam of sociology for contemporary readers, nor is it an angry screed in search of a soapbox, but its resignation is hard to miss: "The colored ballplayer," writes White, "should always look before he leaps. He should remember that, although possessing the ability in every particular of the white ball player, he is not in a position to demand the same salary as his white brother, as the difference in the receipts of their respective games are decidedly in favor of the latter."

In a long, probing introductory essay, Negro League historian Jerry Malloy provides important context to the content of White's work. And while White's History stands on its own, Malloy adds an intriguing array of supporting documents, including some of White's later observations on the game; an 1892 account from the Cleveland Gazette identifying the prejudice of Cap Anson, the Hall of Famer most responsible for establishing the game's color line; and a column from the April 11, 1891, issue of Sporting Life that begins with the already shameful realization that, "Probably in no other business in America is the color line so finely drawn as in base ball. An African who attempts to put on a uniform and go in among a lot of white players is taking his life in his hands." --Jeff Silverman

About the Author

The work is introduced by Jerry Malloy, a recognized expert on the history of Negro leagues who has spent years in painstaking research into this vanished world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0803297831
• ISBN 13: 9780803297838
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 190