The Roots of Baseball in the US

Abstract

Baseball in the US did not develop in a vacuum. Like other professional sports, several critical social, cultural, and historical circumstances coincided with the birth and growth of the sport. These included the Civil War, Reconstruction, the promotion and spread of Jim Crow laws, and several Supreme Court rulings that restricted or denied rights to African-Americans. Despite the abolition of slavery following the Civil War, racism, discrimination, and segregation continued in the US. Similarly, initial hopes to integrate baseball following the Civil War were shattered by contemptuous treatment of African-American players on and off the playing fields. As an end-result, African-Americans (as well as black Hispanics) were excluded from Major League Baseball for more than a half-century, despite perceptions of the game as “America’s sport.” In general, segregation in Major League Baseball reflected the racial milieu prevailing in the larger US society. When Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947, it was an epochal event that helped trigger the US Civil Rights Movement.