Major league baseball gets it's first African-American player when the Toledo club (a member of the American Association) signs Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, former star of the Oberlin College baseball team.

Performing with the Toledo team Walker turns in a creditable performance, but was nonetheless dropped from the roster at the end of the season. Though he never returned to major league competition, Walker continued to play in white organized baseball with a number of minor league teams along with several other African-American players.

The Cuban Giants, the first fully professional all-black team was organized in Babylon, New York. Though unaffiliated with an organized league, the team played top teams throughout the East, and over the next few years established itself as a top professional touring squad.

1887

The first effort to establish a top tier league of professional all-black cubs takes shape when eight teams come together to form the National Colored Base Ball League. The newly formed league included the Lord Baltimores, Boston Resolutes, Cincinnati Browns, Louisville Falls Cities, New York Gorhams, Philadelphia Pythians, Pittsburgh Keystones and Washington's Capital City Club.

The league was of very short duration, lasting only two weeks before collpasing due to lack of attendance at it's games.

1890

The first plank in baseball's notorious "color barrier" is laid when the International League bars African-American players from continued participation in the league. This ban quickly spread to other leagues and, in the end, resulted in the complete racial segregation of professional baseball in the United States. The "color barrier" would continue for more than 50 years.

1895

The Page Fence Giants baseball team is formed in Adrian, Michigan by veteran black star "Bud" Fowler. The team traveled in it's own railroad car throughout the Midwest and East playing exhibition dates against top black teams and white major league teams as well.

1896

Racial segregation becomes the official law of the land as the United States Supreme Court upholds the State of Louisianna's law providing for "separate, but equal, public facilities for African-Americans. "Public facilities" included everything from schools to parks, and blacks and whites were prohibited from participating together in athletic competitions throughout the Southern states.

1896

Black baseball sees it's first "national championship" series when it's two top teams, the Page Fence Giants and the Cuban Giants, play a 15 game series for the title. The Page Fence Giants took the series 10 games to 5.

1920

The Negro National League is organized at a meeting of the owners of top Midwestern teams in Kansas City. The league was the brainchild of Hall-of-Fame pitcher Andrew "Rube" Foster, then owner of the Chicago American Giants. The new league proved to be the first stable and successful professional Negro League circuit.

The league began it's inaugural season on May 2, 1920 with the following members: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs and Cuban Stars. Though member teams changed several times through the decade, the league florished during the 1920s before the onset of the Great Depression.

1920

Organized Negro League baseball becomes a reality in the Deep South as Nashville Elite Giants owner Thomas Wilson (shown at right) facilitates the formation of the Negro Southern League. The league begins it's inaurgural season with the Atlanta Black Crackers, Nashville Elite Giants (which would later become the Baltimore Elite Giants), Birmingham Black Barons, Memphis Red Sox, New Orleans Black Pelicans and Chattanooga Black Lookouts.

1923

A six-team league is organized in the East by Hilldale owner Ed Bolden and Nat Strong, owner of the Brooklyn Royal Giants. The Eastern Colored League begins it's inauraural season with the Hilldale Club, Bacharach Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Lincoln Giants (of New York), Baltimore Black Sox and the Cuban Stars.

1924

The first Negro World Series is played between the Kansas City Monarchs (Negro National League Champions) and the Hilldale Club (Eastern Colored League Champions).

Kansas City wins the series championship 5 games to 4.

1928

The Eastern Colored League folds under financial pressures and disbands in midseason.

1928

1929

Negro National League founder Rube Foster dies after an extended hospitalization.

The Negro Southern League is the only "major" black league in operation. The league begins its seasons with only five teams — Chicago American Giants, Cleveland Cubs, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs amd Louisville White Sox.

In the East a failed effort was made to reestablish an organized league. The East-West league, which included the Baltimore Black Sox, Cleveland Stars, Cuban Stars, Hilldales, Homestead Grays and Newark Browns, failed to complete the season. The league disbanded in June.

A new Negro National League is formed. Organized by Pittsburgh bar owner, Gus Greenlee, the league launches its inaugural season with seven teams — Cole's American Giants, Monroe Monarchs, Nashville Elite Giants, Montgomery Grey Sox, Louisville Black Caps and Indianapolis ABCs.

The first East-West Colored All-Star Game is played at Chicago's Comiskey Park before 20,000+ fans. The West defeated the East 11-7.

The Homestead Grays begins its 9-year reign as the champions of the Negro National League with the power-hitting tandem of Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard.

Legendary homerun king Josh Gibson dies at the age of 35.

Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first black player in major league baseball during the modern era.

Robinson wins the National League Rookie Of The Year award as he solidifies his position in a pennant winning Dodger lineup.

Larry Doby is signed by the Cleveland Indians and becomes the first black player in the American League.

Satchel Paige is signed by the Cleveland Indians and becomes baseball's all-time youngest "rookie" at the age of 42.

The Negro National League plays its final season, disbanding at the end of the year.

By the end of the season more than 150 former Negro League players have been integrated into organized baseball. Without its greatest stars, and struggling with low attendance, the great era of Negro League baseball comes to a close.