Shut Out of the Majors, They Created Their Own
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Feb 13, 1920. For over thirty years, Black baseball players have been locked out of the major leagues. So on this day in Kansas City, Rube Foster, a former pitcher and now a team owner, is trying to make his own league just for Black players. He has gathered owners of other Black baseball teams, who currently play each other in one-off matchups or face independent teams in random games around the country. But Foster wants them to get organized, and soon, the Negro National League would be born.
But up to this point, how did Black baseball survive after segregation became the unofficial policy of the major leagues? And how did Black players, owners, and managers join together to create something that no baseball fan could ignore?
Special thanks to our guests, Phil S. Dixon, author and Negro Leagues researcher; and Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO.
** This episode originally aired Feb 7, 2022.
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Transcript
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| 0:23.2 | Hey, History This Week, listeners. We have something very exciting to share. This podcast has been going since 2020. But for the first time ever, we are taking it live. If you are in the New York City area, please join us for a live episode at the Tenement Museum in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, March 4th at 6.30 p.m. I will be in conversation with historian Tyler Anbinder exploring the history of Irish immigration to the United States, |
| 0:29.3 | cutting through some of the most common myths, and looking closely at how Irish immigrants actually |
| 0:34.3 | navigated life, work, and assimilation in America. This is history where it |
| 0:40.0 | happened in one of the most meaningful spaces in the city, and we would love to see you there. |
| 0:45.1 | We will drop a link with all the details in the episode description, and you can also find the |
| 0:49.0 | event at History Thisweekpodcast.com. Hope to see you there. |
| 0:56.1 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 1:01.8 | History This Week, February 13th, 1920. |
| 1:09.9 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 1:12.9 | The Paseo YMCA is no stranger to meetings. |
| 1:18.1 | There are meetings of Midwestern missionaries, |
| 1:21.2 | of something called the Texas Club, |
| 1:23.6 | of the board of directors at a local hospital. |
| 1:26.4 | The YMCA is a key institution in Kansas City, |
| 1:30.0 | especially if you're black. |
| 1:31.8 | It's a place where young black men without a place to stay |
| 1:34.2 | can get a nice room for about $2 a week, |
| 1:36.7 | eat in the cafeteria, play piano in the lobby. |
| 1:39.5 | It's a place where black kids can take swimming lessons |
| 1:42.2 | at the indoor pool, |
| 1:43.5 | the only one in town |
| 1:44.6 | that black swimmers are allowed to use. |
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