The term "negro league" is a misnomer since there was no single Negro league. From the 1880s to 1950, hundreds of African-American professional baseball teams played throughout the United States. Blacks were not allowed to play in organized baseball in the United States before 1947 under an unwritten policy based on the color line. At its highest level, some of these teams participated in a formal league structure, but more often, teams played as independents or in informally organized circuits.

Maryland, particularly Baltimore, had a rich history of black baseball teams. Negro baseball first appeared in Baltimore in the 1880s, in the form of the Baltimore Atlantics. In 1887, the Lord Baltimores became a charter member of the first professional Negro league, the National League of Colored Base Ball Clubs, given the same name of a white baseball team from a few years earlier. The league lasted all of two weeks, due to lack of public support on the part of the African-American community

Although the International League banned African Americans from playing in 1890, the United States Supreme Court made segregation a way of life in 1896 when it ruled in favor of Louisiana’s “separate but equal” law (Plessy vs. Ferguson). African Americans had no choice but to form their own teams and leagues.

Baltimore Orioles manager John McGraw tried to evade this ban of black players in 1901. He tried to pass off Charlie Grant, a player for the Page Fence Giants, as an American Indian, giving him the moniker of Chief Charlie Tokohama. Chicago club owners recognized Grant and put an end to the ruse.

From about 1913 to 1934, the Baltimore Black Sox played as an independent team between stints in the Eastern Colored League, American Negro League, National Negro League, and East-West League. After the departure of the Black Sox in 1934, Baltimore did not have a significant black baseball team. In 1938, the Elite Giants moved to Baltimore from Washington, D.C. (having formerly played in Nashville, Cleveland and Columbus). Like its predecessor, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Elites played their home games in Bugle Field, located at Biddle Street and Edison Highway.

When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the days of Negro League baseball were numbered. Elite stars such as Roy Campanella, Junior Gilliam, and Joe Black soon followed and became teammates of Robinson. The Baltimore Elite Giants joined the Negro American League after the demise of the Negro National League in 1948. The Elites captured the league title in 1949 and finished second in the East in 1950. The following year, the club, in dire financial straits, moved to Nashville and played a single season. The Negro League operated throughout the 1950s, with black baseball’s more talented players going to the major and minor leagues. This migration lead to a decline in the team’s quality, before dissolving into history.

Since 2002, the Bowie Baysox, the Baltimore Orioles' Eastern League AA affiliate, has hosted an annual Negro League Tribute Night at Prince George’s Stadium, honoring many of the league players who passed through the Negro Leagues. In 2002, the Baysox wore replica Baltimore Elite Giants jerseys during the game; while in 2004, the Baysox wore replica Baltimore Black Sox jerseys. Among the Maryland Negro League players celebrated were the late Leon Day, of the Baltimore Black Sox and a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, and the late Ernest Burke, of the Baltimore Elite Giants.

Bready, James. Baseball in Baltimore: the First 100 Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Negro League Baseball site pages: http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/history101.html http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/teams/Baltimore_Elite_Giants.html http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/teams/Baltimore_Black_Sox.html