Celebrating Baseball:  

Atlanta Black Crackers

In celebration of the 2014 World Series, the AARL Archives travels back to an Atlanta treasure found in the pamphlet collection.  The Atlanta Black Crackers, formerly known as the Atlanta Cubs, began playing minor league baseball in Atlanta in 1919.  The team played in the Negro Southern League and the Negro American League during the first half of the twentieth century.  According to the 1945 Atlanta Black Crackers Publicity Manual, "Well stocked with prewar stars, the Black Crackers have their eyes formed on Southern League pennant for the second straight year, and will display the same brand of ball that made the Atlanta club a tremendous drawing card last season."

For more information on the history of the Atlanta Black Crackers, please visit our previous post about the team.  

Treasures from the Vertical Files: Atlanta Black Crackers Ad

Today’s treasure from the vertical files is an advertisement for the Atlanta Black Crackers from the June 14, 1939 edition of the Atlanta Daily World. It is a fitting theme for this week as it coincides with the end of the 2010 World Series. The ad was placed by Coca-Cola to market their product at games and to wish the team luck. The ad also includes three signatures, which are assumed to be those of team players, whose identities are unknown at this time. In addition to the ad, page five includes various articles detailing the season opening of the Black Crackers, or “Black Crax,” as the Atlanta Daily World called the team.

The League of Colored Baseball Clubs was formed in 1887 as a response to the National Association of Baseball Players banning of black players from its white league in 1867. During this period, black baseball teams in Atlanta found their beginnings at historically African American universities, including what was then Atlanta University and Clark University. The first black professional team in Atlanta, the Deppens, also formed before the start of the twentieth century. The Atlanta Cubs, a semiprofessional team of black college students, succeeded the Deppens and changed their name to the Atlanta Black Crackers in 1919. The team joined the Negro Southern League in 1919 and continued to represent Atlanta in that league until 1937.

Teams in African American leagues, including the Black Crackers, were often plagued by financial difficulty and continually found themselves under new ownership. One reason behind financial problems was the inability to sell out games because of segregation, which did not allow mixed crowds. After Reverend John Harden and his wife purchased the Black Crackers in 1938, the team later became part of the Negro American League. A year later, when the team was sold to Indianapolis, it played under the nickname ABC’s. Soon after, in 1940, a new Atlanta Black Crackers team formed. The demise of the Negro baseball leagues and their teams, including the Black Crackers, began in the mid twentieth century once the all-white major league was integrated.

References:

Darnell, Tim. “Atlanta Black Crackers.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2006. http://dev.ngerr.gsu.edu/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1966&hl=y

Heaphy, Leslie A. The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2003.

Lanctot, Neil. Negro Baseball League: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Posted by Nicole Carmolingo, AARL Archives Intern