Only The Ball Was White

Only The Ball Was White, by Robert Peterson, is an oral history of the Negro Leagues from the 1870s through the 1960s. The reader gets to know a group of important players in the world of black baseball, including Effa Manley, Rube Foster, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and more. The book, originally published in 1970, is considered a landmark in studies of organized black baseball.

Further Reading

• Robert Peterson: Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1992 (originally published in 1970). The classic history of the Negro Leagues.