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By 1865, African Americans were no longer enslaved persons.
But they still weren’t allowed to do everything that white Americans did.
In the late 1800s, many southern states passed laws that kept the races apart. African Americans had to go to separate schools. They had to use separate restaurants and hotels. They also had to use separate water fountains and sit at the back of buses.
Up North, segregation wasn’t the law, but African Americans still lived in separate neighborhoods. So they went to separate schools. Most African Americans could only get the lowest-paying jobs. They had little chance of getting better jobs. American society was split between white and black. Baseball reflected that.
