The Early Image of Black Baseball: Race and Representation in the Popular Press, 1871-1890

by James E. Brunson III

Overview

This volume examines early black baseball as it was represented in the artwork and written accounts of the popular press. From contemporary postbellum articles, illustrations, photographs and woodcuts, a unique image of the black athlete emerges, one that was not always positive but was nonetheless central in understanding the evolving black image in American culture. Chapters cover press depictions of championship games, specific teams and athletes, and the fans and culture surrounding black baseball.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786442065
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	07/15/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James E. Brunson III is an art historian who specializes in American Modernism. His work has been published in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, and Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game. A practicing artist who specializes in watercolor painting, he currently teaches visual culture at Northern Illinois University.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     
Introduction     

1. Dust from Many Diamonds: Trauma, Memory, and the Colored Championship     
2. “Fifteenth-Amendment Club-Slingers”: Colored Base Ball and the St. Louis Sporting Fraternity, 1875–1877     
3. Dudes, Macks, Land Ladies, Waiters, Tonsorialists, and Aesthetes: The Colored Sporting Fraternity     
4. Men of Mark and Marked Men: Black Baseball Representation     
5. “A Mirthful Spectacle”: Representing Negro Comedy or Black Aesthetic Style     
6. Genuine Colored Artists: Black Legs, Black Stockings, and Colored Baseball, 1877–1888     

Coda: A Glance Over the Diamond Fields of the Continent     
Chapter Notes     
Bibliography     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

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From the Publisher

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