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Negro leagues come and go, and three reasons seem to supply the answer: that the leagues are underfinanced, that they lack leadership in the beginning, and that they never achieved the stability or discipline of white organized baseball due to the two reasons given. The chapter also tells us about Andrew Foster and his proposal of a national association patterned after the big leagues which later became the National Association of Colored Professional Baseball Clubs and the Negro National League, both of which became widely accepted among the baseball clubs. The Eastern Colored League was also opened but there was enmity between the two leagues. The chapter also discusses the effects of Foster's resignation from the League resulting in its subsequent death. A new Negro National League and the Negro American League were later formed and became successful.

This chapter states that the National Negro Business League (NNLB) was another forum in which Booker T. Washington espoused his entrepreneurial ideas. His statements during the Negro Farmers' Conference showed no consistency between his public and private articulations of his entrepreneurial ideas. The chapter analyzes the NNLB from 1900 to 1915 which demonstrates that Washington implemented and promoted his entrepreneurial philosophy as a strategy for real freedom, empowerment, and equality. His efforts made him not only a champion of African-American business development, but they also institutionalized his entrepreneurial philosophy. He hoped to use the medium of NNLB to reach the greatest number of people possible. The chapter also highlights the history of NNLB.

This chapter discusses the extremely talented Andrew (Rube) Foster who was a pitcher, a field manager, and the founder and stern administrator of the first viable Negro league. He was even deemed as the most impressive figure in black baseball history. The chapter discusses Rube's early childhood and the events that made Foster what he became, playing for one league to the other. The chapter also discusses his managerial career after playing for major league. He formed the American Giants and served as its manager. He was regarded as a very effective manager minus some issues regarding the wages of the players. However, his playing acuity shouldn't be discounted. He was regarded as a very smart pitcher and was even described as one who pitches with his arm and his brain.

This chapter presents the article “The Breath of Agitation Is Life” for the AME Church Review, where Fortune reflected on the work of race organizations and the value of agitation. He believed that the “breath of agitation is life” and that it should be advocated, but at the same time he believed that those who were not directly involved in agitation should not be criticized. In this he believed that the work of Booker T. Washington and the National Negro Business League were important and should not be dismissed. The most important issue to Fortune was “race unity.”