In the book Of Mice and Men, the groom named Crooks is the only black man on the farm and for this reason he has to face some difficulties. For example, in the book Crooks is forced to sleep alone in the barn while the other workers on the farm sleep in their dormitory. The only reason Crooks can't sleep in the same room with them is just because he's black. This situation is very similar to another conflict going on at the time. At this point in history major league baseball was becoming very popular and due to segregation there was a white league and a black league. This black league was called the Negro Leagues. “On February 13, 1920 African American leaders met in Kansas City, Missouri to establish the Negro National Leagues,” this was one of the first successful colored baseball leagues with Calvert Foster as president. . The National Association of Colored Baseball included five teams; the Chicago Giants, the Detroit Stars, the Indianapolis ABC's, the Kansas City Monarchs and the St. Louis Giants. This laid the foundation for the Negro Leagues in the 1920s. Just as Crooks had difficulties on the farm, the men of the Negro Leagues also had many difficulties. For example, black players were just as good if not better than other white major league teams, but because they were black, the highest league they could play in was the Negro Leagues. Negro League teams often didn't have enough money to have their own stadiums, so they had to rent them from local white teams. The African American teams also traveled by bus unlike the white teams who traveled by train because it was faster and more efficient. Segregation also made it difficult to find places to stay. Often the teams...... middle of paper...... during this time there was a group of people called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) these people hated African Americans and the Negro Leagues people had a lot of problems with them. The KKK expressed many of the hate mail and death wishes Jackie Robinson received. During this time there were many segregated things such as bathrooms and water fountains in public places. Another thing that was segregated was the sports stadium. For example, in baseball games there was a "white" and a "colored" section in the stands. The “white” section had the best seats and they were more comfortable while the “colored” section had the ugly seats that were just wooden benches. Without The Negro Leagues and Jackie Robinson there would be a lot more segregation today and baseball wouldn't be as good without all of America's best players, whether they're black or not.