Daniel Sobczak
EDSS 7540
Dr. J.K. Lee
17 October 2005
Negro Leagues and African American Participation in Baseball as a Portrayal of
American History Transforming Content Knowledge
The game of baseball is ingrained in American Society as the “National Pastime.”
Since its invention in the early part of the nineteenth century, it has represented the
changes in American history over the past nearly two hundred years. The sport,
commonly accepted as evolving from cricket was even played in prisoner of war camps
in the Civil War. As the years passed, changes in baseball continued to represent the
changes in the nation. African American participation in the sport has extended nearly to
the creation of baseball. As their participation became more integrated in society in
general, so did their participation in the game of baseball.
As early as the 1860s, Negro teams had formed separate from their white
counterparts beginning a tradition that lasted, mostly uninterrupted until Jackie
Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. There, however, notably were a
few exceptions to this. The Toledo Blue Stockings had signed Moses Fleetwood “Fleet”
Walker in the 1880s and when the team joined the American Association in 1884, Walker
became the first black player in major league baseball (Baseball, the Color Line and
Jackie Robinson). Walker’s presence did not come without some controversy that was
symbolic of his time. In a game against the Chicago White Stockings, the White
Stockings refused to take the field with Walker playing until the manager of the Blue
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Stockings insisted that the game go forward. Eventually the players relented and the
game proceeded. In 1887, the International League forbid the future signing of black
players that in effect put in the color barrier that lasted sixty years until Jackie Robinson’s
debut with the Dodgers in 1947. This integration actually preceded efforts by the federal
government to desegregate different parts of society. The armed forces were
desegregated in 1948 by executive order and public schools were desegregated in 1954
by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (Baseball, the Color Line, and
Jackie Robinson).
Integration did not come easily to baseball. The easy part was putting the players
on the team. The hard part came from the reactions of the spectators. Although many
fans watched the games with great interest, many more were not as accepting of an
African-American major league baseball player. Robinson received death threats from
fans, hotels refused to allow him to stay with his team mates while on the road. As was
also seen in delayed integration in society, integration did not come to all of major league
baseball until 1959 (Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson), a full twelve years
after Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field in Brooklyn for the first time.
A popular place for black baseball players to show their talent was by
“Barnstorming.” Although black teams frequently played each other in this way, white
major league teams often joined in playing the black teams in exhibition format. Another
place that black and white players played together was on integrated teams for the United
States Navy. Another “integration” in the Negro Leagues was that at first, the negro
leagues used white umpires to call their games (MLB website). This may seem slightly
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on the side of white supremacy since umpires are in a position of power which was not
atypical for the time that it had occurred.
The Negro leagues also paved the way for many great athletes to make
contributions to the sport to rival their white counterparts thus showing that AfricanAmericans were no less equal in any way. According to the Major League Baseball
website, players such as Leon Day pitched a no-hitter in 1946 while playing for the
Philadelphia Stars. Player Willard Brown managed to score a home run on a ball that
bounced right in front of home plate. It was not until 1966 that anyone advocated placing
players from the Negro League in the Hall of Fame. This came from a white player, Ted
Williams. As seen in American History, students today often must be taught the
achievements of minorities and are usually focused in months such as “African-American
History Month” in February or “Hispanic History Month” in October. Unlike their white
counterparts whose history is often common knowledge such as Alexander Graham Bell
invented the telephone or Henry Ford utilized the assembly line to make Model Ts
affordable to more Americans, the history of minorities is often not found in the common
knowledge of the American People.
Baseball has been part of Americana for nearly as long as the United States has
been free. The sport has very closely mirrored American Society in general. During
World War II, when many of Major League Baseball’s players were overseas serving in
the armed forces, women played baseball to keep the sport alive. This is similar to
women filling in jobs in factories as their husbands served in Europe and the Pacific. As
America came closer to integration in general society, baseball lead the way. In 1972,
Jackie Robinson sought the day there would be a black manager in major league baseball.
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He died shortly after making this speech, but three years later it became reality. The year
before, Atlanta Braves player Hank Aaron broke a the home run record that was held by
former Brave’s player Babe Ruth when he hit home run number 715 at Atlanta-Fulton
County Stadium. As America continues to change, so will baseball.
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Pedagogical Section
This unit will focus on the impact of minorities in the sports world and the
parallels to American society in general. This topic is somewhat specific; however, it is a
topic that will generate interest in many students. The students will conduct research
using American Memory as a basis but will be expected to utilize offline sources to
conduct a majority of their research. The purpose behind using the offline sources is to
give students an opportunity to utilize sources other than Google to find information that
they need. For the basis, students will be asked to utilize information presented in the
Baseball and Jackie Robinson collection from American Memory. Due to American
Memory’s limited resources though, students will be unable to complete the required
assignments with only the information presented in this collection. As the students gain
base knowledge, the will be expected to take that to the print sources to fine tune the
information they are seeking for their final paper.
The objectives will be two fold. On the first level, students will be able to
identify and explain the contributions of minority players to American sports. Students
will also be able to explain the links between sports and American society in general. On
the second level, students will be able to identify print sources to complete successfully a
research project. Students will also be able utilize these print sources and properly cite
the sources in their research papers.
Students will be given adequate time in the media center to utilize the computers
to complete the American Memory portion of the project but more importantly to utilize
the offline sources. The media specialist will be involved in the lesson by helping the
students identify appropriate sources such as sports almanacs, encyclopedias, and various
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periodicals as well as appropriate books from the non-fiction section to allow the student
to successfully complete the research necessary for the paper. Although American
Memory focuses on Baseball and the contribution of Jackie Robinson to the sport,
students will not be expected to focus solely on baseball. They will be given the
opportunity to select any sport that they choose. Students will be asked to identify the
contributions of minorities in the sport of their choice through the time frame of the
history of that sport. For example, if a student chooses baseball, they will be asked to
follow from the creation of baseball the impact of the Negro Leagues, and of Hispanics
and Asians in the sport. Students will have short conferences with the teacher near the
beginning of the project to ensure that appropriate questions are addressed. The teacher
will also work closely with the students throughout the process the ensure that as future
questions come up, they will be able to identify the proper source to find the answer to
the question. The goal is to allow students to have some autonomy for the project, but at
the same time necessary guidance to ensure success. This will allow students to focus on
the achievements of great athletes such as Jesse Owens, but it will also allow students to
explore other sports of interest ranging from boxing to football.
Assessment will come in the form of a four to six page essay although various
steps in the paper will come as the student progresses through the research process.
Students will be expected to submit rough drafts for review as well as an outline of their
proposed paper all to allow the teacher to follow the progress of the student and intervene
if necessary before a student goes too far down a wrong track with their project. This
will allow the teacher to better anticipate the nature of the papers before they come due to
ease the grading process.
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Transforming Section
By creating this unit as a research unit, it is my hope to accomplish two goals.
The guiding the students with appropriate questions, I will be able to demonstrate my
knowledge of the subject to focus the search for information, but at the same time
develop the students’ abilities to find information necessary to complete a successful
paper. The major reason behind doing this assignment as a research project is to allow
students to utilize skills learned in other subjects, primarily language arts, in the social
studies classroom. It is my hope that students see that there are no finite boundaries
between what they learn in each subject and that information can be carried over between
the subjects to ensure a well-rounded education.
This project will also focus on Georgia Performance Standard SSUSH13 “The
student will identify major efforts to reform American Society and politics in the
Progressive Era.” This Georgia Performance Standard will replace current Quality Core
Curriculum topic 24 Social Change which focuses on Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson
and Booker T. Washington. By utilizing the research format, students will gain a better
understanding of the topic in a manner that will be interesting to them allowing them to
focus on a topic that is of more interest to them. This will allow the student to customize
the lesson to their interest rather than focusing on what the teacher may find interesting.
Throughout the project and working with the students, I will be able to
demonstrate my content knowledge by questions such as “How was Jesse Owen’s
appearance in the 1936 Olympics significant to not only the games, but America’s view
of African-Americans and Hitler’s views of the perfect race.” Questions could also be
asked about the events that lead to the ouster of African-Americans from the Mexico City
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games for displaying the Black Panther salute. Although this is very specific to
minorities on the United States Olympic teams, it would point out how times progressed
in American Society using the sports figures as the case studies for the changes that
occurred in the society.
Overall, the students will be able to use higher-level thinking skills to develop a
paper utilizing teacher prompts and American Memory as well as print sources to
produce a final paper for this project. They will be able to analyze the information and
synthesize it into the final paper as well as evaluate what information will be useful for
their project. It will stimulate creative thinking and, as previously mentioned, show that
skills that they learn in other subjects due indeed have importance in the social studies
classroom.