Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1902-1931

As the companion volume to Black Baseball Entrepreneurs,1860-1901:

Operating by Any Means Necessary, Lomax's new book continues to

chronicle the history of black baseball in the United States. The first volume

traced the development of baseball from an exercise in community building

among African Americans in the pre-Civil War era into a commercialized

amusement and a rare and lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurship

within the black community. In this book, Lomax takes a closer look

at the marketing and promotion of the Negro Leagues by black baseball

magnates. He explores how race influenced black baseball's institutional

development and how it shaped the business relationship with white clubs

and managers. Lomax explains how the decisions that black baseball

magnates made to insulate themselves from outside influences may have

distorted their perceptions and ultimately led to the Negro Leagues' demise.

The collapse of the Negro Leagues by 1931 was, Lomax argues, "a

dream deferred in the overall African American pursuit for freedom and

self-determination."