Negro National League

CTL-E-5245 · Organization · professional · 1920–1931

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

The Negro National League (NNL) was the first successful professional baseball league for African American players. It was founded on February 13, 1920, when Rube Foster and fellow team owners met at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri, and organized a governing body, the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs. Its eight charter clubs — the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs, and St. Louis Giants — gave Black baseball a stable schedule, honored player contracts, and a pennant race for the first time. Foster, the league's president, ran it from Chicago, where his American Giants were its flagship team. The league expanded into the South in 1924 and met the Eastern Colored League in the first Colored World Series that year. Weakened after Foster's institutionalization in 1926 and his death in 1930, the league collapsed in 1931.

The record

• Also known as: NNL, National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs

Notes

Staged 2026-10-15 under CTL-GOV-006; Gate A clear; Gate B met (3 sources). CTL treatment: CTL sports-lane subject (CTL-DR-INST-001 sources); subject of 15 CTL research files (27 mentions) per the 2026-10-15 corpus gap scan. Statistics carried: eight charter clubs, named in full (Congressional Record, H. Res. 162, checked 2026-10-15); operated 1920–1931. The NNL of 1920–1931 (NNL I) is distinct from the second Negro National League organized in 1933; this record covers the first only.

Referenced by

• Rube Foster — founded → this record

Sources

• Congressional Record, H. Res. 162 (110th Congress), via Congress.gov — https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-153/issue-38/house-section/article/H2200-2 (primary source)
• Andscape (ESPN), “Rube Foster was the big man behind the first successful Negro baseball league” — https://andscape.com/features/rube-foster-was-the-big-man-behind-the-first-successful-negro-baseball-league/
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Rube Foster” — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rube-Foster

Record CTL-E-5245 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 3 sources (1 primary) · 1 mapped relationship · CTL research: PPL-001.
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