How a North Dakota team broke baseball's colour line. (Bismarck: 2013, gated)

[Baldrick]

I read this article and watched the accompanying video (3:33secs) and even though I have virtually no interest in Baseball I found it very interesting. I thought it might interest a few on here.

BBC News - How a North Dakota team broke baseball's colour line

In the 1930s baseball, like much of the rest of US society, was racially segregated.
African-American players joined separate teams and played in their own leagues with their own followers.
It would be another decade before Jackie Robinson, in 1947, famously broke the sport's colour barrier and become the first black athlete to play for a Major League Baseball team: the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But out on the fringes of America, on the great plains of North Dakota, one man with a passion for baseball decided to field the best team he could in order to triumph in the regional "semi-pro" games.
The Bismarcks - with six white and six black players - stand out in America's social and cultural history as one of the earliest examples of sportsmen of different races competing together.
Tom Dunkel, author of Color Blind, told the BBC about the team's remarkable story.

Related article: Interview: Tom Dunkel, Author Of 'Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line' : NPR

Also a radio interview with the author on this same story: NPR Media Player

[Cinj]

I did not know this. Cool story. Thanks for sharing.

[JanND]

Very interesting. I'd heard that buffalo soldiers were from N.D. and knew that we had black farmers way back when, but wasn't aware of the baseball player situation. Thanks for sharing this.
Web site re: Buffalo soldiers, as the Sioux named them, were black cavalry men were located in Fort Bufford, South of Williston. THE GREAT NORTHERN