Milwaukee once had its own team in the Negro Leagues.<\/p>\n
The Milwaukee Bears, formed in 1923, only lasted one year, so their memory and accomplishments became a minor footnote in baseball history.<\/p>\n
However, Ken Bartelt, a doctoral student working toward his PhD in history, is spotlighting the role of the Bears and other Negro League teams in America\u2019s complex approach to baseball and race. He did his master\u2019s thesis \u2013 \u201cBrew City Black Ball: Milwaukee as Microcosm of the Early-Twentieth Century Black Baseball Experience\u201d \u2013 on the history of the Negro Leagues in Milwaukee. Over the summer he was interviewed for a PBS story. PBS was filming a show about the Mallards, a Madison amateur baseball team that plays in the Northwoods League, which did a tribute to the Bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy areas are race and American history and society, but I like to do it through the lens of sports. I think things we might call pop culture are a really great way to get people interested in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartelt, who grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, combines his lifelong love of baseball and a passion for history in his work. Neal Pease, a 51ÁÔÆæ emeritus professor of history who taught a course on baseball and American history, inspired him to use his interest in baseball to look at how history influences contemporary issues.<\/p>\n
With his research on the baseball\u2019s Negro Leagues, he says, \u201cwe\u2019re talking about baseball, but we\u2019re really talking about race in America. We\u2019re talking about labor relations and the immigrant experience; we\u2019re talking about business economic history. I just think baseball, being America\u2019s pastime, is a great way to learn about history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Negro Leagues and the Milwaukee Bears highlight an era when America and its sports teams were divided along color lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of teams do tribute nights, but they don\u2019t really talk much about how these leagues were formed and how they struggled to operate in Jim Crow America,\u201d Bartelt said. \u201cThey really became one of the first and most successful nationwide Black institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he first started researching the topic, Bartelt found a \u201cglaring void\u201d about Milwaukee\u2019s contributions to the Negro Leagues. Baseball histories mentioned the city had a team in 1923, but they didn\u2019t talk about it at any depth. The Milwaukee Brewers had unearthed one historic photo of the team, but not much was known about the team.<\/p>\n
He also found that a highly successful all-Black traveling team, the McCoy-Nolan Giants, was based in Milwaukee. They were sponsored by a white owner, John R. McCoy\u2019s plumbing supply company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey aren\u2019t mentioned anywhere, but they had tremendous success, winning 80% of the games they played throughout the country and overseas and in Cuba and Canada, Bartelt said. \u201cThey won the California midwinter tournament in 1930, which was the biggest semipro tournament in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both teams are largely absent from Milwaukee baseball literature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the blessings, but also the challenges of this work \u2013 that nothing had been done before. But it allowed me to kind of interpret the primary sources and make arguments and claims,\u201d Bartelt said.<\/p>\n
Those sources included 400-plus newspaper articles in online archives \u2013 the pandemic year worked in his favor for that, said Bartelt. He earned his master\u2019s in public history and museum studies in the summer of 2020.<\/p>\n
He also interviewed Dennis Biddle, who founded and runs an organization called Yesterday\u2019s Negro League Players Association. Biddle, a 51ÁÔÆæ alum who lives in Milwaukee and played for the Chicago American Giants, talked about his experiences in the Negro Leagues. He had also become friends with some of the Bears players later in their lives, giving Bartelt insights into 1920s Milwaukee and the impact of the dual white and Black economies.<\/p>\n
Biddle said the Bears often played for majority white crowds because Milwaukee\u2019s Black population was relatively small at the time. In 1923, less than a half a percent of Milwaukee\u2019s population was Black.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really not a conducive market for Negro League baseball, because the Negro League teams were reliant on Black patronage, while some of these traveling teams would go to these little all-white towns and everyone would come out to see them. As an actual franchise, they needed a Black customer base and Milwaukee didn\u2019t have that in 1923. That\u2019s one reason why the team failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, in spite of all the challenges, the story of the Negro Leagues is also a story of perseverance, Bartelt said. \u201cThese men, and one woman (Effa Manley), who owned some of these teams \u2013 they came together to build something that meant a lot to their communities and employed a lot of people. They provided entertainment for people for decades, even during the Jim Crow period.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sees value in studying the past to prepare for the future, and, as a white scholar, he sees himself as an ally in telling people about this particular slice of history. \u201cIt\u2019s about seeing this story that needs to be told. I have the tools to tell it and I want to share that with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of the Negro Leagues is an important reminder of a time in our history when we were quite literally racially divided. If we as a nation are going to reckon with our racial past and the contemporary issues we have, we need to reckon with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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