Whirty: How the first African-American baseball league was launched in Jacksonville
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Jacksonville Magazine on April 28, 2016:
Jacksonville might have seemed like the unlikeliest of locales to launch one of the most ambitious enterprises in baseball’s early history, especially one that arose in the face of rapidly spreading segregation in the Jim Crow South.
But that’s what happened 130 years ago. In spring 1886, Jacksonville’s T.T. Harden announced the launch of the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (SLCBB), which today is known as the first-ever attempt at a multi-state, all-professional African-American baseball league.
Read the full article here: http://www.jacksonvillemag.com/2016/04/28/first-african-american-baseball-league-launched-jacksonville/
Originally published: May 19, 2016. Last Updated: May 19, 2016.