Black Baseball Teams Form as Major Leagues Impose Color Line

In 1887, the International League formally barred Black players, completing the de facto color line in professional baseball. In response, Black players organized their own teams and leagues. The Cuban Giants, founded in 1885 in Babylon, New York, became the first professional Black baseball team. Independent Black teams barnstormed nationally, demonstrating excellence that directly contradicted white claims of Black athletic inferiority.