Cooperstown’s Back Door

For over 60 years, the color barrier excluded Black ballplayers from the major leagues, forcing them to form their own teams and leagues. After Jackie Robinson broke down that barrier, Black players faced another: the barrier to the Hall of Fame. At the time of the founding of the Hall of Fame, segregation was firmly entrenched in baseball, and it was defended by the same power brokers who kept the Hall successful with their support. The fight for the recognition that Black players had earned on the field lasted nearly as long as the color barrier itself. This book presents the full history of that fight: the exclusion of Black players for so many years, the many efforts to fix that, and the fights for Hall of Fame recognition of the Negro Leagues that are still ongoing.

Paul White is member of the Society for American Baseball Research, has written for SABR’s BioProject and Games Project and is the editor of the Lost In Left Field newsletter. He lives in the suburbs of Kansas City.

Paul D. White
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 240
Bibliographic Info: 22 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9354-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5421-8
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
1. Why Cooperstown? 5
2. The White Men at the Top 17
3. Integration 29
4. Foot Dragging 50
5. Change 74
6. The Back Door 94
7. The First Wave 102
8. Back to Obscurity 110
9. The Second Wave 124
10. The Second Special Committee 135
11. Over It 148
12. Another Effort, More Hope 158
Epilogue 180
Acknowledgments 183
Chapter Notes 185
Bibliography 205
Index 223

• “[White] deftly portrays how key owners and commissioners colluded with intolerant writers in delaying the integration of baseball and the Hall of Fame, and in marginalizing the accomplishments of the talented players of the Negro Leagues.”—Booklist

• “This excellent and well-researched book delves into the early history of how the Hall of Fame was founded, the fact it ended up in Cooperstown due to a myth about the game’s origins, and how Major League Baseball owners, officials and writers conspired with Hall board members for many decades to keep out Negro Leaguers who were prohibited from playing in the major leagues due to segregation. This fascinating book provides a complete accounting of the inaction or wrong actions taken by the Hall to overlook Negro Leaguers while continuing to elect unqualified white candidates. White details how a constantly changing system of committees had the same effect: make it harder for Negro League players, managers and executives to get elected. For anyone wanting to learn insights into how the Hall of Fame has failed in its mission to document the true history of baseball by not providing proper recognition for Negro Leaguers, then Paul White’s Cooperstown’s Back Door is the perfect book to inform you. It’s well worth the read!”—Chris Jensen, author of Baseball’s Two-Way Greats