Episode Five: Maintaining the Color Line

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues

This week, we continue our three-part series on how the color line was drawn, maintained, and ultimately brought down, as Curtis speaks to Todd Peterson, a researcher and the editor of the book The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues. Todd talks about what inspired him to pursue Negro League research and the process of putting together the book with likeminded researchers. He then shares some of the statistics he's found that show how the quality of play in the Negro Leagues was on par with the American and National Leagues. Curtis and Todd also talk about how the leadership of the American and National Leagues went to great lengths during this period to keep baseball segregated, the difficulties researchers face in trying to track down data from exhibition and barnstorming games, and why it's important for all baseball fans to learn the story of the Negro Leagues.

You can buy The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues from the publisher or wherever you get your books https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-negro-leagues-were-major-leagues/

Todd also contributed a piece to Baseball Reference with more stats that show the Negro Leagues were Major Leagues https://www.baseball-reference.com/articles/negro-leagues-major-leagues-todd-peterson.shtml