During baseball’s infancy, a color barrier was put up by the first formal organization of baseball clubs, the National Association of Base Ball Players, which decreed in 1867 that clubs "which may be composed of one or more coloured persons" should not be permitted to compete with its teams of gentlemen amateurs. When the first professional league was formed four years later, it had no written rule barring Black players, but it was tacitly understood that they were not welcome. The colour line was not consistently enforced, though, during the early years of professionalism. At least 60 Black players performed ...(100 of 21802 words)