The Chicago Seminar on Sport and Culture invites you to the final session of this season on May 4, 2007, 3:30 PM.

"Blazing Balls and Smashing Batsmen: Baseball, Race and the US Army,
1870-1920"

By Stanley Arnold, Ph.D
Northern Illinois University

His research examines the development of baseball among four black regiments, (24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry) in the period between the Civil War and the end of the First World War. Baseball provided black soldiers an opportunity to demonstrate their athletic prowess. They competed against white settlers, Filipinos and both white and black soldiers. In the process, they developed a level of skill and confidence that would inspire some to join the first Negro League teams. Although there has been a great wealth of scholarship on the Negro Leagues, there has been less attention paid to the period before 1920. This is an attempt to shed some light on this somewhat neglected period.

Dr. Arnold teaches US sports History and 2Oth century US History. He has been dominated for an Emmy Nominated for Emmy for Best Documentary Research for the film: Du Bois: A Life in Four Voices. He is currently researching African American boxers in Georgian London.

The seminar meets at the Newberry Library, The Newberry is located at 60 W. Walton St., between Clark and Dearborn streets. Discounted parking is available at garages at 100 W. Chestnut, 100 E. Walton, and 1025 N. Clark with ticket validation at the front desk. The meeting is free and open to the public. For additional information, contact the coordinator, Steve Riess, Dept. of History, Northeastern Illinois University at 773 442 5631 or s-riess@neiu.edu