How to Access WorldCat
Books are great sources for historical information. The Granville A. Bunton African American collection, located on Ekstrom Library's third floor, may be a great starting place for historical nonfiction, biographies, encyclopedias, and more. The collection holds over 8,000 titles on the history and study of people of African descent living in the Americas and Caribbean.
You can also explore UofL's WorldCat to find available titles, the library that holds them, and their exact location in the stacks. Search the catalog by keyword, author, title, or subject term.
Need help getting started? Check out our Research DIY video tutorial and step-by-step instructions on how to find books.
A Few Selections from the Catalog
Black Writers/Black Baseball
This revised edition is an anthology of 10 African American sportswriters who covered baseball's Negro Leagues in the first part of the 20th century. The writers include Sam Lacy, Wendell Smith, Frank A. Young, Joe Bostic, Chester L. Washington, W. Rollo Wilson, Dan Burley, Ed Harris, A.S. "Doc" Young and Romeo Dougherty. The men represented here were pioneers in their own right. Writing for black weekly newspapers, they faced the same conditions as the leagues' players, from discrimination to endless travel. Yet it was through their writings that the public, both black and white were given an up-close, inside look at the day-to-day happenings of Negro League baseball.
Negro League Baseball
This treasure trove of images by Withers, the unofficial team photographer for the Memphis Red Sox, captures the peak of Negro League action through the years of groundbreaking integration, as well as the community in which black baseball was played.
Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents, Lanctot consulted virtually every sports page of every black newspaper located in a league city. He then conducted interviews with former players and scrutinized existing financial, court, and federal records. Through his efforts, Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.
The Negro Leagues Revisited
This is a followup volume to Voices form the Negro Leagues which featured interviews with 52 former Negro League players form the 1920s to 1960s. Interviewees in this volume include Bobby Robinson, Double Duty Radcliffe and Red Lindsay.
Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball
Celebrating African America's contribution to our great national pastime, this comprehensive, lively history combines vivid narrative, visual impact, and a unique statistical component, to recreate the excitement and passion of the Negro Leagues. Packed with stories, biographical essays, scores of archival photographs and other evocative artifacts, it is an important contribution to sports history and a wonderful tribute to the players and teams who wrote a unique chapter in the annals of baseball and American culture. National Geographic is proud to present this compelling volume, compiled by a who's who of authorities on the subject. Drawing on years of research, Shades of Glory traces the history of black baseball from the 19th century to the first great teams, such as the Cuban Giants, and on to the era of the vibrant barnstorming teams from the East Coast, Chicago, and Cuba. The unparalleled Rube Foster started the first Negro League in 1920, with such dominant teams as the Chicago American Giants and the Kansas City Monarchs. Pittsburgh soon produced two of the greatest teams of all time, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, featuring such stars as Satchel Paige, John Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and many more. Their superb brand of baseball rivaled the best of the major leagues until the historic signing of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Shades of Glory chronicles a bygone era of black baseball and the stars who were shadowed by racial prejudice, but now shine forth in all their sparkling brilliance.
Willie's Boys: the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the last Negro League world series, and the making of a baseball legend
The story of Willie Mays's rookie year with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro World Series, and the making of a baseball legend Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is one of baseball's endearing greats, a tremendously talented and charismatic center fielder who hit 660 career homeruns, collected 3,283 hits, knocked in 1,903 runs, won 12 Gold Glove Awards and appeared in 24 All-Star games. But before Mays was the ""Say Hey Kid"", he was just a boy. Willie's Boys is the story of his remarkable 1948 rookie season with the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons, who took a risk on a raw but gifted 16-year-old and gave him the experience, confidence, and connections to escape Birmingham's segregation, navigate baseball's institutional racism, and sign with the New York Giants. Willie's Boys offers a character-rich narrative of the apprenticeship Mays had at the hands of a diverse group of savvy veterans who taught him the ways of the game and the world. Sheds new light on the virtually unknown beginnings of a baseball great, not available in other books Captures the first incredible steps of a baseball superstar in his first season with the Negro League's Birmingham Black Barons Introduces the veteran group of Negro League players, including Piper Davis, who gave Mays an incredible apprenticeship season Illuminates the Negro League's last days, drawing on in-depth research and interviews with remaining players Explores the heated rivalry between Mays's Black Barons and Buck O'Neil's Kansas City Monarchs , culminating in the last Negro League World Series Breaks new historical ground on what led the New York Giants to acquire Mays, and why he didn't sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, or Boston Red Sox Packed with stories and insights, Willie's Boys takes you inside an important part of baseball history and the development of one of the all-time greats ever to play the game.
The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball
A complete reference guide to Negro league baseball. Most baseball fans know that in 1947 Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, marking the beginning of integration in the major leagues, but few know what the game was like for African-American players prior to that breakthrough event. How many fans know that integrated military teams played each other during the Civil War, but that segregated leagues became the norm in the years that immediately followed the war ? Or why the League of Colored Baseball Clubs lasted less than one full season in 1887? Or who Rube Foster, the organizer of the Negro National League, a league that thrived from 1920 until World War II, was? The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball chronicles the times, the teams, the players and managers, the stadiums, the sportswriters, and the unique stories that make Negro league baseball such a significant part of the history of the sport and of American culture. Where other histories have been glossier and less comprehensive, this one recreates the richness of the game in a readily accessible reference format perfect for the general reader. Among the more than 3,000 entries included are: Gus Greenlee, a black gambler who created the Pittsburgh Crawfords The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading black newspaper offering the most complete coverage of Negro league baseball under the direction of sportswriter Wendell Smith Josh Gibson, the Babe Ruth of the Negro leagues Leon Dray, a top pitcher Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball in the U.S.
Negro Leagues' Integration Era
The Negro Leagues' Integration Era covers the history of the Negro Leagues, its players' segregation from Major League Baseball, and their eventual integration. Readers will meet owners, players, and managers who were supporters of integration such as Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, Clay Hopper, and PeeWee Reese, as well as those who held the Color Line such as Kenesaw Landis and Cap Anson. Black players to join the major leagues such as Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, Sachel Paige, Dan Bankhead, Willard Brown, Hank Thompson, Roy Campanella, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Ray Dandridge, Minnie Minoso, Elston Howard, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron and Pumpsie Green are introduced. Vivid descriptions of the legendary players and their stories explore the social impact of black baseball in segregated America. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards.SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.