Publicity Images Credits and Captions

“Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience” Online Site Support Notebook

All libraries received a CD containing authorized publicity images, captions and credits, sponsor logos and sample PR materials. The images will not be on the exhibition Web site. Please use image credit lines at all times; descriptive captions are encouraged if space is available. Libraries which use other images for exhibit publicity are responsible for securing permission to use them.

Authorized Images

  1. Toledo, Ohio, American Association baseball team with Moses Fleetwood Walker, 1884.

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    Catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first African American to play professional baseball in a major league. After the Toledo team dropped out of the American Association in 1884, Walker continued to play in the minor leagues for several more years.

  2. The Philadelphia Giants with player-manager Sol White (standing, third from right) and pitcher Rube Foster (standing, second from left), 1904

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The Philadelphia Giants were an outstanding turn-of-the century black team. When Rube Foster joined them in 1904, he led them to the World’s Colored Championship over the Cuban X Giants. Rube Foster went on to pioneer the first successful professional black baseball league, the Negro National League, in 1920.

  3. St. Paul Gophers, c. 1909

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The St. Paul Gophers were one of several independent, all-black teams to proclaim themselves “Colored World Champions” of 1909.

  4. The Chicago American Giants, 1920

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The Chicago American Giants with Hall of Famers Rube Foster (back row, center) and Cristóbal Torriente (back row, far left).

  5. Baseball autographed by the Kansas City Monarchs, winners of the 1924 World’s Colored Championship

    Photo by Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

  6. Belt buckle celebrating Hilldale’s Eastern Colored League Championship, 1923

    Photo by Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

    The Hilldales, based in suburban Philadelphia, won the Eastern Colored League Championship three straight years from 1923 to 1925.

  7. The Kansas City Monarchs, 1924

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The Kansas City Monarchs, champions of the Negro National League, beat the Hilldales, champions of the Eastern Colored League, in the first World’s Colored Championship in 1924.

  8. The Pittsburgh Crawfords in front of their team bus at Greenlee Field, Pittsburgh, 1935

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The Pittsburgh Crawfords were one of the few Negro league teams of the 1930s to own their own home field. For many years, their archrivals were the Homestead Grays, another Pittsburgh-based team.

  9. Broadside advertising the Kansas City Monarchs’ portable lighting system, c. 1930

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    The Kansas City Monarchs, one of the first baseball teams to hold night games, traveled with their own generators and light stands. By moving games to times when more people could attend, they greatly increased gate receipts.

  10. The East squad from the 1939 East-West Game, with Buck Leonard (back row, far left) and Josh Gibson (back row, third from right)

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    Beginning in 1933, the East-West Game put the best players of the Negro leagues in the spotlight at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The game drew as many as 50,000 spectators. Chicago hosted the last East-West Game in 1953.

  11. Jackie Robinson’s #42 Brooklyn Dodger jersey from the final year of his career, 1956

    Photo by Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

    In 1997, Jackie Robinson’s #42 was retired throughout all levels of professional baseball, an honor never before bestowed on any player.

  12. Satchel Paige at his 1971 induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    Satchel Paige was the first player inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame based solely on his performance in the Negro leagues.

  13. Frank Robinson, major league baseball’s first African-American manager

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    Frank Robinson made baseball history when he was selected by the Cleveland Indians as their manager in 1975. The first African-American manager in the major leagues, Robinson went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles, the Montreal Expos and the Washington Nationals.

  14. Emmett Ashford, first black umpire in the major leagues

    Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

    In 1966, Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire in baseball’s major leagues. Ashford worked in the American League from 1966 to 1970.