-Only the Ball was White

First published in 1970, this work is credited with beginning the modern interest in the history of the Negro Leagues. This work traces the involvement of non-white baseball players from the sport’s beginning in the 1860s, to the formation of the seven official Negro Leagues in 1920, through the eventual desegregation in the late 1940s. Published only twenty years after the integration of the Major League, Peterson uses first-hand accounts by former Negro League players to bring their history to life. With this work, Robertson also starts the task of creating a register of players that identifies “the top echelon of Negro baseball” by compiling information from box scores and newspapers.