William Augustus Greenlee (December 26, 1893 – July 7, 1952) was a highly successful businessman in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, who was born and raised in
Marion, North Carolina
Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare ...
. After migrating to Pittsburgh as a young man and working in the steel industry, he started to acquire his own businesses.
There he also bought the
Pittsburgh Crawfords
The Pittsburgh Crawfords, popularly known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recrea ...
baseball team in 1931, founded the second
Negro National League in 1933, serving as president; and built
Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.
The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, constru ...
, one of the few ball parks built for and owned by a Negro league team.
Life
Gus Greenlee was born in
Marion, North Carolina
Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare ...
in 1893. His father was a masonry contractor and his mother was a homemaker. Greenlee did not complete college, but his three older brothers did and pursued professional careers: two became doctors and one a lawyer.
In 1916, Greenlee traveled north by freight car to Pittsburgh, settling in the
Hill District
The Hill District is a grouping of historically African American neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, "the Hill" was the cultural center of black life in the city and a major cent ...
. This was the period of the first
Great Migration, when more than one million blacks left the rural South for work and opportunity in the industrial northern cities. In Pittsburgh Greenlee held several jobs in the steel mills, shining shoes and driving a cab. During World War I, he served in the black 367th regiment.
Having saved his money, in 1924 Greenlee bought the Collins Inn; he gradually became one of the most influential African-American business owners in Pittsburgh. He acquired the
Crawford Grill
The Crawford Grill was a renowned jazz club that operated in two locations in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, the second Crawford Grill venue hosted local and nationally-recognized acts, inclu ...
nightclub and in 1931 bought the
Pittsburgh Crawfords
The Pittsburgh Crawfords, popularly known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recrea ...
Negro league baseball team, which had declined.
In 1933 he founded the
Negro National League, acting as president.
He later built
Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.
The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, constru ...
, one of the few built and owned by a Negro league team.
Greenlee also was known as a
numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
runner and racketeer. He acted as a
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
to fellow blacks in the community, providing scholarships for students to get education, and grants for adults to buy homes. Such opportunities were not customarily available, because of the segregated policies of white-controlled financial institutions. Scholars suggest that Greenlee's success be read as an enterprising attempt to fill a need created by segregation. For instance, according to Vernell A. Lillie, professor emeritus of Africana studies at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
, Greenlee and other "runners" were respected. "They made their money probably from the numbers racket, but they turned that money into something very positive. If anybody wanted to buy a house, they could not go to Mellon Bank or Dollar Savings. They had to go to old man Greenlee, or to
illiam A. "Buzzy"Robinson."
Greenlee died of a stroke July 7, 1952. He is buried in Pittsburgh's
Allegheny Cemetery
Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery.
The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and boun ...
.
Contribution to baseball
Greenlee knew little about baseball when he first started out. He took interest when the promoters of the Crawford Giants ran out of money, and he decided to give a charitable donation of the money he made from a speakeasy that he owned and money he made from getting into the banking business. His large payroll attracted some big name players in the Negro leagues. He would eventually make the Crawford Giants his team by getting rid of the players that were there before him and bringing in new players. Greenlee also owned a future light-heavyweight boxing champion, which added to his reputation.
Negro leagues
In 1933, Greenlee organized the annual East-West Classic, an all-star baseball game in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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at Comiskey Park, between Negro league stars; it became the centerpiece of the baseball season. That same year he was the primary founder of the
second Negro National League, which he served as president for five seasons.
For a while, the Crawfords were the best-financed team in black baseball. Revenue generated from his
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
and bootlegging operations enabled Greenlee to sign black baseball's biggest names. The 1935 squad may have been the best ever to play in the Negro leagues, as it fielded five
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
players. Money also enabled Greenlee's economic success also resulted in his building a ballpark for his team, known as
Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.
The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, constru ...
. When he bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1931, he was insulted that his players were not allowed to use the dressing rooms at white-owned or -controlled venues such as
Forbes Field
Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of t ...
,
Ammon Field, and others.
Post-Negro leagues
Following the 1938 season, Greenlee left baseball. He sold the baseball team and razed the ballpark, partly because he had lost the best players and partly because he owed money on a heavily played number.(Riley)
In 1945, he made a comeback in alliance with
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...
, related to Rickey's projected integration of the major leagues. They established the
United States League
The United States League (USL), alternately called the United States Baseball League, was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The USL was organized as a minor league in 1945 by Bra ...
as a method to scout black players specifically to break the color line. It is unclear if the league played the 1945 season, or if it was used only as a front to achieve integration of the major leagues.
In October of that year, Rickey signed
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...
, who never played in the USL. The 1946 season lasted only a few weeks before the league folded. Robinson went on the break the Major League color line in 1947 with Rickey's
Brooklyn Dodgers
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...
.
Greenlee left baseball permanently after 1946 but continued to operate the Crawford Grill until 1951, when it was destroyed by a fire.
Greenlee Field
In 1932, Greenlee purchased a plot of land and developed
Greenlee Field
Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.
The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, constru ...
, one of the early black ballparks. (Contrary to popular opinion, it was not the first; it followed the Walker brothers' ballpark at the corner of Chauncey and Hombre Way, also in the Hill District.
) The stadium was made of concrete and steel. It seated 7,500 fans. The ballpark was designed by Pittsburgh's first African-American architect,
Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger
Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger (September 29, 1891, in Sumter, South Carolina – February 3, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American architect responsible for the design of significant buildings in and near Pittsburgh.
Life and work
...
. It cost Greenlee nearly $100,000, of which he financed over half. Lights for evening play and a tarp to shield fans from the sun during the day were added in 1933. The first game at the field attracted 4,000 fans as some seating was still under construction. For a time, the field was also used for the
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
football practice.
References
Sources
*
External links
Negro League Baseball website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenlee, Gus
1893 births
1952 deaths
Baseball executives
Negro league baseball executives
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
People from Marion, North Carolina
Burials at Allegheny Cemetery
Businesspeople from Pittsburgh
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century African-American people