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You don't have to be a baseball fan to know that Jackie Robinson broke the color line—the unwritten rule drawn in the 1890s barring African Americans from playing in the major leagues—when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Yet until recently, even avid fans of the game knew little or nothing about the Negro leagues, a rich culture of black baseball preceding the Robinson era by more than a half-century.

The National Pastime in Black and White: The Negro Baseball Leagues, 1867-1955 tells the fascinating story of the Negro leagues during segregation. The exhibition's 60 photographs and 15 to 20 rare artifacts acquaint visitors with great athletes who were good enough-but not white enough—to play in the major leagues. These athletes didn't wait for the door to "organized" baseball to open; they formed their own teams and leagues and played the game with as much skill and enthusiasm as their white counterparts.

The Negro leagues provided a venue for black ballplayers (and heroes for black fans) prior to the desegregation of major league baseball, which preceded all the major civil rights landmarks of the 1950s and 1960s. This and other social aspects of the Negro leagues are examined, such as the roles of teams and players in their communities, the importance of weekly black newspapers, barnstorming, and the impact of traveling black teams on rural, mostly white communities.

After decades of neglect, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in the Negro leagues. The National Pastime in Black and White will appeal both to baseball fans and to museumgoers interested in this important chapter of American history.