Negro Leagues Baseball

Bruns, a historian, acquaints high school students, students of American social history and culture, and general readers with Negro League baseball and the achievements and experiences of African American players during the period of segregation. Within its historical context and the context of baseball in general, he describes teams from the 1860s on, including the Philadelphia Pythians, the Cuban Giants, the Mighty Homestead Grays, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and the Kansas City Monarchs. Players such as Octavius Catto, Moses Fleetwood Walker, Bud Fowler, Charlie Grant, Satchel Paige, Gus Greenlee, Dizzy Dean, Branch Rickey, Eddie Klep, Jackie Robinson, and Larry Doby, are profiled and information is given on Rube Foster's creation of the first national Negro major league, Ed Bolden and the Eastern Colored League, the first Negro Leagues World Series, the East-West game, barnstorming, the role of the black press in integration, and the decline of the leagues. In addition to these chapters, biographical profiles, primary documents like newspaper articles and interviews, and a chronology are included. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Roger Bruns is a historian and former deputy executive director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives in Washington, DC.