On March 3, 1920, a group of African American businessmen gathered for a meeting in Atlanta, to talk about baseball.
Just a month before, Andrew “Rube” Foster, the legendary pitcher and manager of the Chicago American Giants, had made history by forming the Negro National League, an association of black teams styled after Major League Baseball that would become the first professional league for black baseball players, NBC News reports.
The businessmen in Atlanta followed suit, and the Negro Southern League was formed.
This month, the Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, will celebrate the league’s centennial anniversary, and in remembering the league and its triumphs, the inseparable history of segregation resurfaces, too.