Birmingham Black Barons

CTL-E-5776 · Organization · other · 1920–1960

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07039 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5776.

The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro leagues baseball club based in Birmingham, Alabama, that played from 1920 to 1960 and shared Rickwood Field with the white Birmingham Barons on alternating stands. The National Park Service's Rickwood Field nomination records the Black Barons as charter members of the Negro Southern League of 1920, and the club later played in the Negro National League before joining the newly formed Negro American League in 1937. Sources differ on the club's pennant count, and this record does not blend them: the National Park Service nomination credits Negro American League pennants in 1943 and 1948, while Birmingham and league histories count three pennants, adding 1944. The 1948 club, a pennant winner under either count, carried the seventeen-year-old outfielder Willie Mays and lost the final Negro World Series to the Homestead Grays. Earlier Black Barons included Satchel Paige and Mule Suttles, both named in the National Park Service nomination. As the major leagues integrated after 1947, Black Barons including Dan Bankhead and Piper Davis crossed to major-league organizations, and the club played its last game in 1960.

The record

• Also known as: Birmingham Stars, Birmingham All-Stars

Notes

STAGED 2026-10-16 (747 Program, Wave 7, Named Remainders & Further Gaps, Batch B) — not merged; awaits founder merge go. Gate A: no match in the live graph (3,443 entities) under the roster name at staging. Vital status: organization, defunct 1960 — not applicable. CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: pennant count is two (1943, 1948) in the NPS nomination and three (adding 1944) in Bhamwiki/Beacon Journal histories. MAYS VARIANCE: the 1948 Negro World Series record calls 1948 Mays's first professional season, while Bhamwiki's Mays page reports earlier 1946–47 stints with other clubs; the description therefore carries only his documented 1948 Black Barons season, and the brief's 'first pro club' framing is NOT asserted. Edges staged: member_of → Negro American League (CTL-E-5517). Photo HELD. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Teams, companies, labels and persons carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and i) | visual_assets = HELD: Rickwood Field / Black Barons era photograph (candidate, Negro Southern League Museum / NPS holdings) | chart = FILLED (Built only from this record's own sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No entry in the Shorts Link Map catalog (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, searched 2026-10-16) bills) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• Negro American League — member of
  The Black Barons joined the newly formed Negro American League in 1937 (Bhamwiki) and won its pennants in 1943 and 1948 per the National Park Service Rickwood Field nomination. member_of runs Organization→Organization in the schema matrix.

Referenced by

• Dan Bankhead — played for → this record
• Mule Suttles — played for → this record
• Reece "Goose" Tatum — played for → this record
• Willie Mays — played for → this record

Sources

• National Park Service, National Register nomination for Rickwood Field (Form 10-900) — Black Barons charter members of the Negro Southern League of 1920; Negro American League pennants in 1943 and 1948; Paige, Suttles, Crutchfield, Davis and Mays among its players (primary source · build store)
• Bhamwiki, 'Birmingham Black Barons' — active 1919/1920–1960 at Rickwood Field; joined the newly formed Negro American League in 1937; counts three pennants (1943, 1944, 1948); last game 1960 (build store)
• Akron Beacon Journal / MLB at Rickwood history, June 14, 2024 — back-to-back pennants 1943–1944 and a third in 1948 with 17-year-old Willie Mays; last game 1960 (build store)
• Wikipedia, '1948 Negro World Series' — the Black Barons, Negro American League champions, lost the final Negro World Series to the Homestead Grays; the club featured 17-year-old Willie Mays (build store)

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Record CTL-E-5776 · Combined Graph record U-07039 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 5 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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