Edited by Azizi Powell
This post is part of an ongoing series on group names of Negro League baseball teams and non-White American traveling (barnstorming) baseball teams.
This post presents a list of names of Negro League or traveling baseball teams that include a racial referent such as "Colored" and "Ethiopian", or a national/ethnic referent such as "Cuban", "Ethiopian", and "Zulu".
This list also includes group names that include the word "Brown" or "Browns" and "Black", although in some cases those words might be used as names of the color of a uniform, bird, or animal and not a racial referent. However, in most cases, I think it's likely that the animal or bird was chosen as the name of the Negro League or Black American traveling team because of its color connection to those players' race.
In addition, this list also includes what I consider to be an oblique racial referent - "Monrovian" ("Monrovia" is the capitol of Liberia, West Africa).
These names are posted in relative alphabetical order. The home state for the team is given in brackets after the team name. If the team was a traveling team, that information is provided in brackets. Also, in some cases, brief editorial comments are posted below the group name.
In a few cases, a brief comment and a hyperlink are given for more information about a particular team.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational value.
It's my position that some of the names of these Negro League baseball teams provide information about the perspectives of Black people during the years that those teams were active.
Some of these group names that are featured in this post are also included in other posts in this series. For instance, the name "Twin City Colored Giants" [Minnesota] is also included in this post on the use of the name "Giant" in Negro League Team Names: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/power-other-high-status-references-in.html.
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_league_baseball for information about the history of The Negro League Baseball
All copyrights remain with their owners.
DISCLAIMER:
I know very little about baseball or that sport's history. Corrections and additions are very welcome.
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RACIAL, ETHNIC, OR NATIONAL NAMES OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS
Source of team names: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Negro_league_baseball_teams
All Cubans [traveling team]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Cubans
“The All Cubans were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that toured the United States during 1899 and 1902-05, playing against white semiprofessional and Negro league teams. The team was the first Latin American professional baseball team to tour the United States”
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All Nations [traveling team]
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Nations
“All Nations was the name of a barnstorming professional baseball team that toured the Midwest from 1912 to 1918, and again in 1920 [1] and 1921, [2] and from 1923 to 1925. It derived its name from the fact that its team included players of several nationalities, including blacks and whites, Indians, Hawaiians, Orientals, and Latin Americans... The team was based out of Kansas City[3] and Des Moines
-snip-
Note that “Orientals” is no longer a socially acceptable referent for Asian people.
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Austin Black Senators [Texas]
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Atlanta Black Crackers [Georgia]
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Black_Crackers
The Atlanta Black Crackers (originally known as the Atlanta Cubs) were a professional Negro league baseball team which played during the early-to-mid-20th century...
The Atlanta Black Crackers were founded as the Atlanta Cubs following the start of the 20th century with a semiprofessional team of black college students. They began to play independently in 1919 and changed their name to the Black Crackers because fans had already begun to call them by that name…
The Black Crackers joined the minor league Negro Southern League in March 1920. Their uniforms, bats, baseballs, and other supplies were donated by their white Southern Association counterpart, the Atlanta Crackers."
-snip-
"Cracker" used here may have no pejorative connotation. Click http://open.salon.com/blog/linthesoutheast/2011/10/07/the_history_of_crackers for information about the history of "cracker" as a referent for people.
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Birmingham Black Barons [Alabama]
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Chattanooga Black Lookouts [Tennessee]
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Chicago Brown Bombers [Illinois]
-snip-
“Bombers” is a positive appellation implying competitive fierceness & power.]
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Cincinnati Browns [Ohio]
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Cincinnati Cubans [Ohio]
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Cleveland Browns [Ohio]
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Cuban X-Giants [New Jersey]
-snip-
This may be the same group as the "Cuban Giants" who are mentioned in this Wikipedia page on the history of Negro League Baseball:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_league_baseball
"The first nationally-known black professional baseball team was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants.[10]"
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Colored House of David [traveling team]
-snip-
”Colored” is a clip of “Colored People”, a formal referent for African Americans that has largely been retired since at least the 1960s.
snip-
”House of David” may have had a religious reference, perhaps implying that God was on this team’s side.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnstorm_(athletics)
"Barnstorming in athletics refers to sports teams or individuals that travel to various locations, usually small towns, to stage exhibition matches. Barnstorming teams differ from traveling teams in that barnstorming teams operate outside the framework of an established athletic league, while traveling teams (also known as "road teams") are designated by a league, formally or informally, to be a designated visiting team for all, or almost all, of its league games."
Click that link to find information about traveling baseball teams and barnstorming baseball teams.
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The Ethiopian Clowns [traveling team]
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Clowns
“The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns, joined the league as the Cincinnati Clowns and, after a couple of years, relocated to Indianapolis…
-snip-
In the 19th century & early to mid 20th century "Ethiopian” was a general referent in the USA for people of Black African descent
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Fort Worth Black Panthers [Texas]
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Harrisburg Monrovians [Pennsylvania]
-snip-
Monrovia is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Therefore, I believe this is an oblique racial referent.
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Jersey City Colored Athletics [New Jersey]
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Little Rock Black Travelers [Arkansas]
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Long Branch Cubans [New Jersey]
-snip-
”Long Branch” is a city in New Jersey
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Louisville Black Colonels [Kentucky]
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Newark Browns [New Jersey]
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New Orleans Black Eagles [Louisiana]
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New York Black Yankees[New York]
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New York Cubans [New York]
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San Antonio Black Bronchos [Texas]
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San Antonio Black Indians [Texas]
-snip-
“Black Indians” refers to people of Black and Indian [Native American] descent.
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St. Paul Colored Gophers [Minnesota]
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Twin City Colored Giants [Minnesota]
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Washington Black Senators [District of Columbia]
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Zulu Cannibal Giants [Kentucky]
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Cannibal_Giants
“The Zulu Cannibal Giants were an African American baseball team (they referred to themselves as a Baseball "Zulu Tribe", based on a concept inspired by the war in Ethiopia) formed in 1934 by Charlie Henry in Louisville, Kentucky”…The Zulu Cannibal Giants gained notoriety for their propensity to turn a baseball game into a comedy performance, much in the same way that the Harlem Globetrotters did with basketball many years later.”
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RELATED LINK
Hat tip to http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/timeline-history-offensive-sports-mascots-redskins-snyder "Timeline: A Century of Racist Sports Team Names" By Matt Connolly and Ian Gordon for their article which alerted me to the use of racial rreferences in the names of Negro League baseball teams.
Most of that article focuses on the historical use & the present day use by American athletic teams of the pejorative term "redskins". I strongly agree with the authors and most of the article's commenters that the use of that referent is offensive and should cease.
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Thanks to the authors of the above linked Wikipedia page that provides a complete list of names of Negro League teams.
Thanks to all those who were members of those teams.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
In my opinion, the sports team name "Zulu Cannibal Giants" is problematic for a number of reasons. "Zulus" are a prominent South African ethnic group who weren't [and aren't] cannibals. The inclusion of that label is a reflection of the highly negative depiction of Black Africans prior to and during the 19th and 20th century and often since then.
ReplyDeleteThe Wikipedia page on the Zulu Cannibal Giants indicates that "The Zulu Cannibal Giants decorated their faces and bodies with African tribal paint, went shirtless, wore only grass skirts, used special custom-made baseball bats crafted to supposedly resemble Ethiopian war clubs, and always played barefoot."
-snip-
This is also a reflection & a reinforcement of the prevailing stereotypes of Black Africans.
Furthermore, that Wikipedia page indicates that "[the team] referred to themselves as a Baseball "Zulu Tribe", based on a concept inspired by the war in Ethiopia) formed in 1934 by Charlie Henry in Louisville, Kentucky."
This conflates the Zulu ethnic group in South Africa with the Ethiopia which is located in the north-eastern part of Africa commonly known as the Horn of Africa - not to mention that the cultures of the Zulu people and Ethiopian people are quite different.
My guess is that the reference to the "the war in Ethiopia" around 1934 was "The Second Italo–Ethiopian War" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Ethiopian_War
"The Second Italo–Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo–Abyssinian War, was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936."
-snip-
Although that war didn't start until 1935, reports about the conflicts leading up to that actual war were being published in 1934 when the Zulu Cannibal Giants team was formed.
As to the focus on the name "Zulu", I think that the selection of that name reflects the perception of Zulus as fierce warriors, thanks, I believe in large part to Chaka Zulu.
Another example of the use by Black Americans of the Zulu group name is the Mardi Gras kwewe "The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club". That krewe was formed "in 1909 after members of the African American social group Tramps witnessed a theatric skit about the Zulus South African ethnic group."
For more information & commentary about the Zulu S&PC visit this page of my cocojams cultural website: .http://cocojams.com/content/blackface-tradition-mardi-gras-zulu-social-aid-pleasure-club" The Blackface Tradition Of The Mardi Gras Zulu Social And Pleasure Club".
My apologies to all those of real Zulu ancestry for these misuses of the Zulu name.