Before They Let Us Play Vol. 1 — They Built Their Own League: The Negro Leagues Story (Standard Companion Edition — EPUB)

Locked out of organized baseball, Black players did not wait to be let in. They built a major league of their own. This volume follows Andrew "Rube" Foster of Calvert, Texas, who gathered Black team owners at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City on February 13, 1920, and organized the Negro National League — and it follows the barnstorming road, the stars the official record books missed for decades, Black baseball's own World Series and All-Star Game, and 1947, when the breakthrough that finally came also emptied the Black ballparks. Where the segregated-era numbers conflict, the book says so: documented league statistics are separated from legend, and ranges replace false precision.

All 6 chapters, each closing with its sources and method note, in the clean EPUB edition — readable on any e-reader, tablet, or phone. The Interactive Edition (separate listing) adds recorded narration by Marcus, the timeline, and the educator quiz.

The chapters:

• Before the Ban — The Door Was Open, Then It Closed

• A League of Their Own — Rube Foster and February 13, 1920

• Barnstorming America — The Bus, the Gate, and Jim Crow

• Stars the Record Books Missed — Paige, Gibson, Bell, Charleston

• Their Own World Series, Their Own All-Star Game

• 1947 and After — The Breakthrough That Emptied the Ballparks

They built their own game. Then they took the whole game.

Edition and price: Standard Companion Edition — EPUB $9.99 (this listing) · Interactive Edition $14.99 (separate listing). A TEKS correlation sheet for this volume is available with the Before They Let Us Play Educator materials.