Team publicity photo for the 1919 Chicago American Giants, a team that played in the Negro leagues.
Credit: Public Domain

Forty-eight years after his death, the baseball star Jackie Robinson just got 38 more hits. In December 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to grant major-league status to the Negro leagues—recognizing Negro league accomplishments as equal to those in the American and National leagues. The Negro leagues were professional baseball leagues formed for Black players, who were barred from playing alongside whites because of racial segregation. The leagues operated from 1920 to 1962.

Negro league teams were a source of pride for Black communities, where competition was just as fierce and the level of play just as high as in the segregated American and National leagues. Baseball historians agree that many players in the Negro leagues would have shone in the white leagues. Black entrepreneurs operated many of the teams and employed Black people from the local community as ticket-takers, ushers, and vendors.

The MLB plans to review the statistics and records of the approximately 3,400 players who played in the Negro leagues from 1920 to 1948 and incorporate them into major league historical records. The records from the Negro leagues are fragmentary, so the MLB will work with historians and statisticians to search for and review data from the period. The process will be ongoing, with records being updated as new box scores come to light.

In 1945, before the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers fielded Robinson, he played 26 games with the powerhouse Kansas City Monarchs, posting a blistering .384/.445/.606 slash line. Two years later, Robinson became the first Black player in the modern history of the MLB. The stats of some other early crossover stars, such as Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, will be greatly bolstered. Players who spent their entire careers in the Negro leagues, such as Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, and Buck Leonard, will gain entry into the major league record books.

Satchel Paige pitched 18 seasons in the Negro leagues before entering Major League Baseball in 1948 at age 42. Credit: AP/Wide World

The decision makes some amends for a double injustice inflicted upon Black baseball players. First, they were barred from playing on major league teams. Then, their achievements were downplayed or dismissed because of a lack of MLB play. No Negro league stars were enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame until the induction of Paige in 1971.

The inclusion of Negro league statistics in the official baseball record books comes too late to offer any consolation to most of the leagues’ veterans. However, it recognizes these players’ incredible talent and their importance in the fight for racial equality and the history of the game. These records will testify to their dogged determination to play America’s pastime in the face of great injustice.

The American actor Chadwick Boseman was best known for his portrayal of the superhero Black Panther. Boseman died on Aug. 28, 2020.
Credit: Marvel Studios

The world of motion pictures was stunned on Aug. 28, 2020, with the death at age 43 of the African American actor Chadwick Boseman. Boseman was best known for his portrayal of T’Challa in the motion picture Black Panther (2018).

Chadwick Aaron Boseman was born on Nov. 29, 1976, in Anderson, in northwestern South Carolina. He attended college at Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 2000. He then pursued a career in the stage, writing and directing several plays.

Boseman also began taking roles as an actor. He played a recurring character on the television series “Lincoln Heights” (2007-2009). His breakthrough motion picture role came playing pioneering American baseball player Jackie Robinson in the film 42 (2013). Boseman went on to play American funk musician James Brown in the film Get on Up (2014).

Boseman’s most famous role was as T’Challa, better known as the superhero Black Panther. Boseman first took on the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016). In 2018, he starred in the character’s feature film, Black Panther. Boseman was praised for his performance in the film, the first major superhero movie to have a Black lead and a majority Black cast. He reprised the role of T’Challa in the films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Boseman died of colon cancer.

April 15, 2020

Today, April 15, is an important day on the calendar, and it is known for some momentous events in history. To many people in the United States, April 15 brings to mind taxes, as it is generally the final day income taxes can be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Two other April 15 events do not brighten the mood: the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on that day in 1865; and the ocean liner Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. But a number of other events, including the births of the artists Henry James and Leonardo da Vinci and Jackie Robinson’s breaking the racial barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB), make April 15 a not altogether gloomy day.

The U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, after being shot by an assassin the night before. Credit: Library of Congress

On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. At 10:22 p.m., a shot rang through the crowded house. John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer and well-known actor, had shot the president in the head from the rear of the presidential box. Lincoln was carried unconscious to a boarding house across the street. The president died there at 7:22 a.m. on April 15.

The “unsinkable” ocean liner Titanic was believed to be the safest ship afloat. But on April 15, 1912, Titanic sank after striking an iceberg. Credit: © AP/Wide World

Just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the British ocean liner RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The disaster occurred on the ship’s maiden (first) voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. and sank bout two and a half hours later, on April 15. The huge ocean liner broke in half and sank into the icy water, killing more than 1,500 people.

On Feb. 3, 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorized Congress to levy a federal income tax. The amendment allows Congress to levy an income tax on individuals and businesses without dividing it equally among the states or basing it on the U.S. census. The deadline for paying taxes from the previous year was originally March 1, and then March 15. In 1954, to give people a little more time to deal with the often complicated burden, the tax deadline settled on April 15.

Jackie Robinson beame the first African American to play modern Major League Baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Credit: © MLB Photos/Getty Images

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues since the 1880’s. Robinson’s impact on segregation in sports went far beyond the Dodgers. After baseball desegregated, other professional sports quickly followed, and a number of previously segregated hotels and restaurants began to admit blacks.

Aside from Leonardo da Vinci (1452) and Henry James (1843), notable April 15 birthdays include the U.S. painter Charles Willson Peale (1741); the U.S. Blues singer Bessie Smith (1894); the first African American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington (1922); the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi (1978); the Canadian-American actor Seth Rogan (1982); and the British actress Emma Watson (1990).

January 30, 2019

On Jan. 31, 1919, 100 years ago tomorrow, American baseball star and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson was born in the southern Georgia town of Cairo. In 1947, Robinson became the first African American to play modern Major League Baseball (MLB). An immensely talented athlete—he hit, ran, and fielded his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame—Robinson is also remembered for his courage and demeanor in the face of brutal racism on and off the baseball field.

Jackie Robinson was born 100 years ago on Jan. 31, 1919. Credit: © MLB Photos/Getty Images

Tomorrow, the Jackie Robinson Centennial Celebration, a year-long tour organized by the Jackie Robinson Foundation, begins with a photograph exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. Various other events will follow in cities across the country—including a speakers’ series, a jazz concert, and a traveling artifact exhibit. The tour ends in December with the grand opening of the new Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City. The Jackie Robinson Foundation provides scholarships and education programs for minority youths and oversaw the creation and funding of the museum.

Jackie Robinson, shown here sliding into home plate, was the first African American player in modern Major League Baseball. Credit: UPI/Corbis-Bettmann

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Georgia, but his family took him to southern California when he was an infant. Robinson starred in football, basketball, baseball, and track in high school and at Pasadena Junior College. He transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1939. There, he earned varsity letters in the same four sports. In 1941, Robinson dropped out of UCLA to help support his mother by working at a youth camp. He also played minor league and semiprofessional football. (Jackie’s older brother, Mack, was also an excellent athlete: he was faster than all sprinters except teammate Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games.)

From 1942 to 1944, during World War II, Robinson served in the United States Army. Robinson started his professional baseball career in 1945 with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. The league was made up entirely of blacks. At the time, baseball was racially segregated—that is, black players were not allowed to play in the major or minor leagues. In 1946, Robinson broke through baseball’s racial segregation barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league team in Montreal, Quebec.

In 1947, Robinson joined the Dodgers to become the first African American in the big leagues since the 1880’s. Robinson’s impact on segregation in sports went far beyond the Dodgers. After baseball desegregated, other professional sports quickly followed, and a number of previously segregated hotels and restaurants began to admit blacks. Robinson was a six-time National League (NL) All-Star and the NL Most Valuable Player in 1949. He retired after the 1956 season.

In 1956, Robinson received the Spingarn Medal. The medal is an award given annually to an outstanding African American. Robinson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. He died on Oct. 24, 1972.

In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s breaking the MLB color barrier, his uniform number, 42, was retired across the league. No single player now wears 42, but every April 15—the date of his first MLB game—every player wears 42 for Jackie Robinson Day. In 2013, the motion picture 42 detailed Robinson’s life story. Robinson played himself in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story.