[...]... Sarah, and Mary Arden—for joining in the journey and sharing in its swamps, valleys, jungle paths, and mountain views We did this together in true partnership I also thank Dad for his encouragement throughout the process, for taking me to games and away from the microforms, and for feigning interest in bygone baseball players I am humbled by and indebted to my dissertation committee for their involvement... New York City businessmen founded the New York Athletic Club in 1868, inaugurating “a new era in athletics,” and in the 1870s, several more New York City clubs organized, including Staten Island, Manhattan, American, and Pastime clubs Similar groups formed in Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco The 1880s saw clubs spring up in Philadelphia; Baltimore; Pittsburgh; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Detroit; Chicago;... Columbia Giants shut down As a business venture, the Leland Giants present in microcosm much of what Chicago’s black business community was endeavoring in the early 1900s to accomplish Leland joined with two other black businessmen in incorporating the team in 1907 They included in the new corporation a summer resort, roller skating rink, and restaurant, with a goal of establishing “a black professional league... played in Cuba (Throughout the history of the black leagues, players frequently traveled to play in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and countries in Latin America, none of which had an ideology of white supremacy and, therefore, laws or norms producing any kind of strict segregation In fact, by 1855, all slaves in Latin America were free except for those in Cuba and Brazil.) In addition to introducing overtly... fear and Enjoy The Life and Freedom of a citizen unmolested or annoyed?”50 Leland’s plans for a baseball-centric entertainment complex demonstrate the priorities of early twentieth-century enterprises walled in and walled off by segregation These include the priorities of uplift, of establishing distinctly black institutions and entertainments, and of celebrating and projecting racial pride Leland’s... opportunities of blacks and to perpetuate disenfranchisement and subordination Achieving larger societal goals of integration and equal opportunity and access, however, came with the pain of watching the flower die on the vine, a pain not unlike that caused by the sacrifice of other once-vibrant black institutions, such as those in education and entertainment This book seeks to chart, describe, and analyze this... series” sparked interest in the sport among black businessmen in Chicago and in New York, and a business that would become one of the largest for segregated northern blacks had formed Some of this interest Leland probably did not want John W Patterson, who in 1899 organized the Columbia Giants in Chicago, dueled Leland’s Giants for local fan patronage into 1900, when Leland won the turf battle and the Columbia... went on “the first tour of a professional ball club in any direction” in 1869, winning all of their games on the tour and going 56–1 for the season.10 “The meteoric career of the Cincinnati Red Stockings,” Spalding wrote, “had wrought a The Origins of Black Baseball 9 very great change in public sentiment, and in the minds of players as well, regarding professionalism.” The public was forced to recognize... men in derby hats smoking big cigars and bantering in the lingo of baseball The Streets hosted Negro baseball’s luminaries and black newspapermen who gathered in the “Paris of the Plains” to launch the first viable all-black baseball federation, the Negro National League In uniting newspapermen and businessmen, the meetings forged a partnership that sought to use baseball to force the issue of integration,... his byline, which appeared alternately as Carey B Lewis and Cary B Lewis David Wyatt also figures prominently early in black baseball history A former player who competed with and against Rube Foster, Wyatt was the Freeman’s writer in Chicago and primary baseball reporter Wyatt’s and Lewis’s base in Chicago explains in The Origins of Black Baseball 17 part why the Leland Giants got more coverage in the . Studies in African American History and Culture Edited by Graham Hodges Colgate University A Routledge Series Troubling Beginnings Trans(per)forming African. racial exclusion,” baseball joined banking, insurance, gambling, and print- ing in the pantheon of important African American business enterprises. 1