[Ads-l] More Re: No Entry for "Negro League" in OED

[Shapiro, Fred]

Here's an earlier citation:

1914 Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 19 Jan. 6/2 (Genealogy Bank)

The classified want columns of a baseball paper contain some astonishing statements. ... A left-handed Indian and white promoters for a negro league are requested to open correspondence.

Fred Shapiro


________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2025 4:19 PM
To: Jennifer Heinmiller <Jennifer.Heinmiller at oup.com>; Gates, Henry Louis <hlg at fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: No Entry for "Negro League" in OED

There is no entry for the term "Negro League" in OED, although there is a 1991 citation illustrating a broader sense of "Negro."  Here are early citations I have found:

1919 Dallas Express 12 July 3/4 (Portal to Texas History)  Emmett Taylor, umpire of this city who has been handling the indicator in the St. Louis American Negro League, will be in charge.

1919 San Antonio Express 28 Sept. (Portal to Texas History)  NEGRO LEAGUE LIKELY TO BE FORMED NEXT YEAR  It is very probable that a negro baseball league, along the lines suggested recently in these columns by Mike Finn, Ace manager will be formed this season.

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org