MLB’s integration 75 years ago decimated the Negro Leagues, leaving many Black players, coaches and executives with nowhere to go.
On Sept. 29, 1946, the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League secured a Negro World Series victory by defeating the vaunted Kansas City Monarchs, 3–2. The series had gone to the wire; over seven games the Eagles and the Negro American League’s top team had bounced from New York to Newark, K.C. to Chicago, and back to Newark, trading runs and wins and losses, too. But in the end, Newark prevailed, and for Effa Manley, the team’s co-owner and business manager, the championship was a welcome reward and much-needed validation.