1920 Birmingham Black Baron’s Join the New Negro National League

Andrew “Rube” Foster was a baseball player, manager, and creator of the Negro National League. On February 13, 1920, Foster convinced a group of businessmen to invest in a negro baseball league so black teams could organize and become successful in their own right. Thus was born the Negro National League; the first negro league to not only survive more than a year, but to thrive for many years. The Birmingham Black Barons were already drawing huge crowds when they joined the Negro National League in 1920 as a minor league team. The Negro National League lasted from 1920 until the Great Depression in 1931.