Brief History of Negro National Leagues

February 13, 1920: The Negro National League is formed in Kansas City.

A meeting at the Paseo YMCA led by Rube Foster set the stage for a new baseball league that changed the face of the game forever. There were previous leagues for black athletes that never proved to be sustainable, but this new organization promised to be different.

Rube Foster, NNL President
Public Domain

The new league established teams across the Midwest and South, including baseball hotspots like St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. The Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Stars proved to be two of the most successful teams of the young league. It was hard to establish a champion since teams played a different number of games and the playoffs were often disputed. But the two teams from Missouri won the NNL Pennant more than half of the time. In fact, the Monarchs played in the Colored World Series twice, winning it all in 1924.