Jim Crow Exclusion From Major Leagues Spurs Creation of Negro Leagues

Following the 'gentlemen's agreement' among white major league team owners in the 1880s and 1890s to exclude Black players, Black athletes organized their own leagues. Rube Foster founded the Negro National League in 1920, building a sophisticated professional baseball infrastructure. The Negro Leagues produced some of the greatest baseball players in history — Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell — who were denied access to the major leagues solely due to race. When Jackie Robinson integrated the majors in 1947, the Negro Leagues were not compensated for the players drafted from them.