Brennan's Topic

For my topic I am looking into segregation and how baseball was such a huge ice breaker for the two races. Baseball was so important to almost everyone during most of the 20th century and for blacks and whites to be playing professional baseball together was crazy to think of back then. After doing research on the library of congress website and also on an online archive I was able to find many articles and photographs dealing with desegregated and segregated professional baseball leagues. In the early 20th century pro baseball leagues were segregated meaning there was a African American league and a white league. Towards the middle of the 20th century whites and blacks started playing together professionally. It was a unique way for African Americans to prove themselves to the whites and show them that they could in fact out play them. When the African Americans joined the white leagues it allowed the two races to basically ignore the skin color difference and just play the game. They were basically forced to work together on the field and it led to better relationships off the field. I am currently doing research on Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays, which are some of the best African American baseball players ever. Through interviews, documents, pictures, and articles written about them, the hard work and experiences these guys faced to play in the big leagues with desegregated leagues was tremendous. So i plan on finding more information on these guys as well as the laws during this time which kept blacks and whites segregated and also other players that might have played in black only baseball leagues.