William Augustus Greenlee (December 26, 1893 – July 7, 1952) was an American businessman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was born and raised in Marion, North Carolina.

After migrating to Pittsburgh as a young man and working in the steel industry, he started to acquire his own businesses.

[citation needed] In 1916, Greenlee traveled north by freight car to Pittsburgh, settling in the Hill District.

This was the period of the first Great Migration, when more than one million black people left the rural South for work and opportunity in the industrial northern cities.

[citation needed] Having saved his money, in 1924 Greenlee bought the Collins Inn; he gradually became one of the most influential African-American business owners in Pittsburgh.

He acted as a philanthropist to fellow blacks in the community, providing scholarships for students to get education, and grants for adults to buy homes.

Scholars suggest that Greenlee's success be read as an enterprising attempt to fill a need created by segregation.

For instance, according to Vernell A. Lillie, professor emeritus of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Greenlee and other "runners" were respected.

Revenue generated from his gambling and bootlegging operations enabled Greenlee to sign black baseball's biggest names.

They established the United States League as a method to scout black players specifically to break the color line.

(Contrary to popular opinion, it was not the first; it followed the Walker brothers' ballpark at the corner of Chauncey and Hombre Way, also in the Hill District.