Video: 'Satchel Paige Biography'

(Tuesday, February 9, 1971) — Pitcher Satchel Paige became the first primarily Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, today.

Paige had played five full seasons in the American League after the integration of Major League Baseball, but was enshrined for his 18 years in the first and second Negro National Leagues and the Negro American League.

The original plan by the Hall was to admit one Negro League player per year “as part of a new exhibit commemorating the contributions of the Negro leagues to baseball” to be honored plaques separately-located, but equal to those of the MLB players.

After critics pointed out the irony of segregating the honor to the enshrined stars, the plan would be revised in time for Paige’s formal enshrinement.

At the time of the decision, only two African-American players — Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanell — were enshrined in the Hall of Fame. While both Robinson (for the Kansas City Monarchs) and Campanella (for the Washington Elite Giants) had also played in the Negro Leagues, they had both been voted in for their MLB achievements.