Major League Baseball color barrier

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The Major League Baseball color barrier was the unwritten but rigid segregation policy that kept Black players out of the major leagues until Jackie Robinson broke it in 1947.

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Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf discriminatory practice
historical phenomenon
racial segregation policy
alsoKnownAs baseball color line
color line in Major League Baseball
appliesTo Major League Baseball NERFINISHED
basedOn race
white supremacy
brokenBy Jackie Robinson NERFINISHED
brokenInContextOf Brooklyn Dodgers NERFINISHED
brokenInLeague National League NERFINISHED
brokenOn 1947-04-15
causedCreationOf Negro leagues NERFINISHED
separate Black professional baseball leagues
challengedBy Branch Rickey NERFINISHED
civil rights advocates
criticizedBy Black press
civil rights organizations
some white sportswriters
documentedIn civil rights histories
sports journalism
emergedAfter Reconstruction era
endedWith gradual integration of all MLB teams after 1947
enforcedBy Major League Baseball executives NERFINISHED
Major League team owners
informal agreement among club owners
excludes African American players
Black players
fullyDismantledBy 1950s
hadException Moses Fleetwood Walker in 19th century professional baseball NERFINISHED
hasCharacteristic informal but rigid policy
racially exclusionary
unwritten rule
influenced broader civil rights discourse
integration of other professional sports leagues
legacy ongoing discussions of race and equality in baseball
legalStatus enforced through custom and hiring practices
not codified in formal MLB rules
maintainedUntil 1947
opposedBy some players and managers
precededBy earlier integrated professional baseball in the 19th century
relatedTo Jim Crow laws NERFINISHED
Negro leagues NERFINISHED
racial segregation in the United States
resultedIn economic marginalization of Black baseball players
exclusion of Black players from Major League rosters
segregated fan experiences in some ballparks
startPeriod late 19th century
symbolizedBy exclusion of Black players from Major League fields

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

I Never Had It Made mainSubject Major League Baseball color barrier