The
Complete History of the Negro Leagues: 1884 to 1995.Mark Ribowsky
$24.95 / Hardcover
ISBN 1559722835
Pub: Birch Lane Press
Cat: Black History
The
Complete History of the Negro Leagues: 1884 to 1995.
Mark Ribowsky
$24.95 / Hardcover
ISBN 1559722835
Pub: Birch Lane Press
Cat: Black History
Mark Ribowsky’s excellent and much-needed A Complete History of the Negro Leagues, helps to lift the veil on this incredibly important yet hidden moment in our history, a story so profound that it speaks not only to the soul of our national game but to the soul of our country as well. For over fifty years—or up until that bright April day in 1947 when Jackie Robinson smashed the major leagues’ color barrier the only ball fields where an African-American could play organized baseball were the tarnished diamonds of the Negro baseball teams. In this the first exhaustive history of the Negro leagues ever written, Ribowsky relates how black fans came to cherish their own heroes, why a trip to see a Negro league game was in itself a statement of racial pride, and why much of black culture was centered on the game of “blackball.” Yet, the Negro leagues were viable only as long as the color line stood. Once Robinson left the Monarchs to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, black fans turned their backs on their old heroes. By the mid-fifties the rollicking and uproarious life of the Negro leagues was no more. A Complete History of the Negro Leagues, 1884 to 1995 offers the story of a great American epic—rich, provocative, and totally unforgettable.