Why did members of the St. Louis Browns refuse to play the Cuban Giants?

In 1887, members of the St. Louis Browns refused to play an exhibition game against the all-Black Cuban Giants due to racial prejudice. The night before the scheduled match, eight players from the Browns delivered a message to their team owner stating, "[We] do not agree to play against Negroes tomorrow. We will cheerfully play against white people at any time."21

This act of discrimination occurred during a period when a "gentlemen's agreement" to exclude Black athletes was increasingly taking hold within professional baseball, despite no formal rule explicitly banning them from the sport at that time. Such exclusionary actions reflected the broader racial segregation and systemic discrimination that characterized the era, eventually leading to the establishment of the Negro leagues as Black players were forced to form their own professional teams to compete.21