Negro Leagues -- Women Included -- Get Another Look Through Art

The “Negro” baseball leagues not only produced stars like Willie Mays and Satchel Paige; they fielded black women athletes like hurler Mamie “Peanut” Johnson. Those heroes have been brought back to life in New Haven thanks to some artists who feel they, too, are playing in a segregated league.

Johnson was one of only three females to play coeducational professional ball thanks to the Negro leagues. (Other women played briefly in an all-women’s league.) Her portrait is the centerpiece of an eye-opening new exhibition by “outsider artists” who see parallels between themselves and the storied – and segregated – players, whose leagues operated roughly from the 1920s through the early 1950s.

The exhibition features 20 artists’ views, mainly paintings done in acrylic on canvas, wood, and other materials, that focus on the visual imagery of the Negro Leagues, which produced storied teams until Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson desegregated the majors and ushered in a new era of pro ball.

The show runs through March 27 at Channel One on State Street and is that gallery’s contribution to the celebration of Black History Month.

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