First Interracial Baseball Game (1871) — Forgotten Civil Rights Milestone in Chicago

Just 12 years later, Cap Anson’s refusal to play against a Black opponent helped push baseball toward segregation.

🗓️ The Game That Made History

In the summer of 1871, a baseball game quietly defied the racial barriers of its time. A Black team known as the Uniques defeated a white team, the Alerts, by a nail-biting score of 17–16—a matchup widely believed to be the first organized interracial baseball game in American history.

🔍 The Date Debate

• Commonly cited date: July 6, 1871 – listed in timelines like Wikipedia and Block Club Chicago
• Archival evidence suggests: July 10, 1871 – based on a contemporaneous Chicago Tribune report rediscovered by SABR (Society for American Baseball Research)

📌 Conclusion: The game did happen—and the Uniques did win. But the exact date remains disputed, with July 10 holding the strongest archival footing.

⚾ Origins and Formation

The Uniques evolved from the Blue Stockings, one of Chicago’s earliest Black baseball teams, composed largely of service workers—porters, waiters, and laborers. In August 1870, the Blue Stockings defeated the Rockford Pink Stockings in a headline-making match. Many of those players formed the foundation of the Uniques in 1871.

By the spring of that year, the Uniques were a dominant force—regularly defeating Black clubs and ultimately challenging, and beating, white amateur teams like the Alerts.

🌟 Achievements and Legacy

• Earned the informal title: “Champions of the West”
• Embarked on the first known all-Black national baseball tour in late summer 1871
• Played games in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Troy
• Competed against powerhouse teams like the Philadelphia Pythians

Their barnstorming tour helped lay the foundation for what would eventually become the Negro Leagues—decades before those leagues formally took shape.

🤝 Who Were the Alerts?

The Alerts were a white amateur team active in Chicago’s pre-fire baseball circuit. Not much is known about their long-term record or legacy, but their willingness to face a Black team in 1871 was unprecedented.

As the Chicago Tribune wryly put it:

“Contestants were the Unique Club (colored) and the Alert (not as much so).”

While the Alerts would fade from the city’s baseball scene, this one game earned them a place in the broader story of integration and sports history.

🏙️ The Setting: What’s Now Grant Park

The game wasn’t played in a stadium or even a formal ballpark—it took place on open land that is now part of Chicago’s Grant Park. In 1871, the lakefront hadn’t yet been developed into the iconic green space we know today. Baseball was often played on commons, meadows, or unused municipal land.

Just a few months after this historic matchup, the Great Chicago Fire would sweep through the city, destroying many informal ballfields and halting local baseball momentum.

In August 1870, Blue Stockings defeated Rockford Pink Stockings. In Spring 1871, Blue Stockings evolve into the Uniques July 6 or 10, 1871, Uniques defeat the Alerts 17–16 in Chicago. Late Summer 1871, Uniques launch multi-city national tour. October 1871 Great Chicago Fire halted baseball activity

📖 Forgotten Voices & the Franklin Press

Over 30 years ago, I acquired several 1870s articles from the Franklin Press, a Baltimore-based periodical that offered rare commentary on early Black baseball and its broader social significance.

Highlights from the Franklin Press archive:

• The black players were often landowners—in post–Civil War America.
• Property ownership was seen as a sign of economic independence and made players more attractive marriage prospects, according to several editorials.
• Women were frequently described as the dominant fan base at these games—labeled “respected,” “dignified,” and “engaged.” Their visible presence helped lend Black baseball greater credibility and social weight in the eyes of some parts of the press and the broader public.

These weren’t just sports pages. They were snapshots of a rising cultural movement—where athleticism, dignity, and community pride met on the diamond.

In 2003, I donated those original Franklin Press articles to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. I had the honor to have a conversation with Buck O’Neil, about their historical value remains one of the highlights of my life. I learned a great deal from that conversation, and I’m profoundly grateful I had the opportunity to speak with him before his passing in 2006.

In 2002, I had contacted the Franklin Press, and through collaborative archival research, we concluded it had been an occasional periodical. To our surprise, it was started by Benjamin Franklin’s model of civic discourse and public responsibility.

🧠 Fun fact: The newspaper’s name was more than symbolic—it intentionally echoed Franklin’s legacy of using journalism as a vehicle for public dialogue and civic engagement.

🌎 Final Reflection

This wasn’t just a baseball game. It was a quiet act of resistance—played with bats and gloves instead of protest signs.

Long before Jackie Robinson took the field in Brooklyn, the Uniques and Alerts crossed an invisible but powerful line—simply by agreeing to play.

But history didn’t flow in a straight line.

Just over a decade later, in August 1883, the Chicago White Stockings—who would eventually become the Chicago Cubs—played an exhibition game against the Toledo Blue Stockings, a team with a Black player. Star player-manager Adrian "Cap" Anson refused to take the field against a team with a Black opponent. Though the game went on, Anson’s protest is widely seen as a turning point in baseball’s descent into rigid segregation.

So while that dusty patch of field in July 1871 offered a glimpse of what integrated sports could look like, moments like Anson’s made sure it wouldn’t happen again—at least, not for another 75 years.

Whether it was July 6 or July 10, the Uniques’ victory over the Alerts remains one of American sport’s earliest—and most overlooked—steps toward integration.