Beginning around 1890, political and economic turmoil—eventually leading to the Panic of 1893—took a toll on the bottom line of each Negro team.
Only one team, the Chicago Unions, managed to survive the crisis intact; while the Cuban Giants suspended play at the end of 1891 but reformed for the 1893 season.
Early on, due to social and lingering fiscal reasons, there was minimal interest and press coverage regarding black teams, so champions were not easily determined.
β — Self-declared champion or unchallenged § — Unofficial champion derived from estimates of the known won-loss records; no team claimed or was awarded a championship in these years due mainly to the organized schedule being abandoned for financial reasons and the team listed is only a generalization * — Disputed.
With the emergence of the hard-fisted leadership of former pitcher Rube Foster, playing a formal scheduled season between other black teams became reality.
Foster, known for his business acumen, recognized that attendance was just high enough so that a reasonable profit can be derived from gate receipts to sustain the travel and commitment required to maintain a league schedule.
This led to the formation of a handful of official Negro leagues, and later to a planned end-of-season World Series.
In 1930, the NNL collapsed (largely due to the death of Rube Foster) but the individual teams continued to play.
[15] Negro league baseball hit its stride after the country had recovered from the devastation of the Great Depression.
An agreed upon championship series was held at the end of the season between each league's pennant winner.
If the purpose of the Negro leagues was to end segregation, then in 1947 (with Jackie Robinson's MLB debut) they became a success and their mission was complete.
With an infrastructure still in place and a viable audience for a short period of time, there was still money to be made for a few more years before total demise.
Therefore, the following teams are listed for posterity; the real black championship contest was now considered to be the annual East–West Game.
Excluding co-championships of the Columbia Giants and Unions in 1899 and 1900, this group of related teams can claim a total of 18 championships (7 earned, 8 declared, 3 unofficial).