Negro Leagues Baseball
Research Resources

Important Books and Film


Advanced Study
• Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
   by Neil Lanctot
The Negro Leagues: 1869-1960 by Leslie Heaphy

General Narrative History
(could serve as textbooks for classroom)

• The Negro Leagues by James Riley
• Black Diamonds by McKissack & McKissack
• Only the Ball was White by Robert Peterson

Photographs/Reference
• The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History
   by Phil Dixon
• Negro League Baseball by Earnest Withers
• Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait by Rachel Robinson

General Research/Reference/Statistics
• The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
   by James Riley
• The Negro Leagues Book edited by Dick Clark and Larry Lester
• Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues by John Holway
• Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959,
   edited by Larry Moffi and Jonathan Krondstadt

"Primary Sources" Reading List
• Sol White's History of Colored Baseball (1903),
   edited by Jerry Malloy
• The Jackie Robinson Reader by Jules Tygiel

Regional Studies
• Every Other Sunday (Birmingham Black Barons)
   by Chris Fullerton
• Sandlot Season (Pittsburgh) by Rob Ruck
• The Kansas City Monarchs: Champions of Black Baseball
   by Janet Bruce
• The Kansas City Monarchs, 1920-1938, featuring Wilber
   "Bullet" Rogan
, by Phil Dixon
• Beyond the Shadow of the Senators (Washington, D.C.)
   by Brad Snyder
• Brushing Back Jim Crow (integration of the South Atlantic
   League) by Bruce Adelson
• Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars by Norman Bak

Biography/Autobiography
• I Was Right on Time by John "Buck" O'Neil
• Jackie Robinson by Arnold Ramparsand
• The Best Pitcher in Baseball: The Life of Rube Foster, Negro
   League Giant
by Robert C. Cottrell
• Maybe I'll Pitch Forever by Leroy "Satchel" Paige
• Josh Gibson by Mark Ribowsky
• I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson
• It's Good to be Alive by Roy Campanella
• Baseball Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel

Fiction
• Bingo Long's Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings
   by William Brashler
• Finding Buck McHenry by Alfred Slote
• Shadowball by Peter Rutkoff
• Hanging Curve by Troy Soos

Documentary Film
• Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns - 5th Inning, Shadowball (1995)
• There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace (1993)
• Only the Ball Was White (1985)

Feature Film/Television Film
• Bingo Long's Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings (1979)
• Don't Look Back: The Life of Satchel Paige (1980)
• Soul of the Game (1998)
• Finding Buck McHenry (2002)


early photos