For more than 60 years, until 1947, African American athletes were banned from Major League Baseball with few exceptions. Today this might seem unbelievable, but at the time public discrimination was rampant and accepted. Unwilling to be excluded from the sport, African American professional baseball players started their own league and developed a style of play that gave the game two of its strongest attributes: entertainment value and athleticism. In this activity, students will examine the collusion of white baseball club owners and their “gentleman’s agreement” (meaning no written policy) to exclude African American athletes from the major leagues. Students will learn about Negro league baseball, which formed as a response to such pervasive and accepted racism.

NOTE: The activity asks students to examine central questions surrounding racism in video clips from “Baseball” and additional surrounding history. Occasionally the materials present words, expressions, and attitudes that students might find objectionable. It is recommended that you make students, parents, and administrators aware of this and explain that these terms and phrases are being discussed in the context of history.

Learning Objectives (Students will...):

• Analyze the views and attitudes of white Americans who opposed African American participation in Major League Baseball;
• Evaluate the reasons presented by white Americans to justify the exclusion of African Americans in Major League Baseball and in society more broadly;
• Analyze the progress of greater inclusion of African Americans in Major League Baseball and in society more broadly today;
• Evaluate the meaning of a “post-racial America.”

About the Authors

Greg Timmons has been a social studies teacher for over 30 years. He has written lessons for several PBS productions including The NewsHour, FRONTLINE, Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise and various Ken Burns productions including The War, Prohibition, The Dust Bowl, Baseball, The Tenth Inning, The Central Park Five, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, and Jackie Robinson. He is the winner of the 2007 American Educational Publishers Award.

Michele Israel has been an educator for nearly 20 years. She has developed and managed innovative educational initiatives, taught in nontraditional settings in the United States and overseas, developed curricula and educational materials, and designed and facilitated professional development for classroom and community educator.