Dr. Robert Cvornyek, Ph.D., an assistant teaching professor at Florida State University Panama City, recently published a non-fiction guide to the early Black baseball teams of Rhode Island. 

"Black Grays and Colored Giants: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Baseball in Rhode Island, 1870-1949," is his latest foray into the intersection of race, sports and cultural expression. It is available for purchase through the Rhode Island Historical Society.

The book chronicles the semi-pro Providence Colored Giants and other segregated baseball clubs that competed in the state during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In support of the book, Cvornyek was interviewed by Rhode Island Public Radio and presented a talk for the Rhode Island Historical Society earlier this year. 

Baseball occupied an important social and cultural space in Rhode Island's African American community, according to the author. “Regrettably, opportunities for Blacks to participate in Rhode Island's amateur and semiprofessional leagues narrowed, and during the 1870s Providence and Newport furnished the state's first ‘colored’ baseball clubs,” he explained in the book. “These teams consisted of any player regarded as non-white and included African Americans, Native Americans, Cubans and Cape Verdeans.”

According to Cvornyek, Rhode Island, like most northern states, was not exempt from the indignities of racism, but the success of its Black teams provided a constant reminder of the strength and accomplishments that accompanied the skill and determination of the state's Black ball players.

A former chairman of the History Department at Rhode Island College, Cvornyek specializes in sport history. He received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University and currently teaches Social Science courses at FSU PC.

He has published extensively, including recently editing the autobiography of baseball Hall-of-Famer Effa Manley, “Negro Baseball: Before Integration.” Other projects have included the book, “Baseball in Newark”; working on a documentary film that explores the “money game” in New England African American baseball; and co-directing the program, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing: Baseball, Jazz, and Black Cultural Expression.”

Cvornyek is currently under contract with the University of Nebraska Press for a new book, "Black Sport in Boston: Essays on Resistance and Representation." He also co-authored an essay for the Society for American Baseball Research's forthcoming history of minor-league baseball on the transition of the Chicago Cubs farm system from Newark, New Jersey to Springfield, Massachusetts.

Another recent pamphlet, “Foreman: The Park, the Brothers, and Black Baseball in Panama City,” was published and produced by FSU Panama City under the banner of “Portraits of Black History in Bay County.”