Gus Greenlee

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.

There he also bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball team in 1931, founded the second Negro National League in 1933, serving as president; and built Greenlee Field, one of the few ball parks built for and owned by a Negro league team.

Gus Greenlee was born in Marion, North Carolina in 1893. His father was a masonry contractor and his mother was a homemaker. Greenlee did not complete college, but his three older brothers did and pursued professional careers: two became doctors and one a lawyer.^{[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. In Pittsburgh Greenlee held several jobs in the steel mills, shining shoes and driving a cab. During World War I, he served in the black 367th regiment.^{[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 acquired the Crawford Grill nightclub and in 1931 bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords Negro league baseball team, which had declined. In 1933 he founded the Negro National League, acting as president. He later built Greenlee Field, one of the few built and owned by a Negro league team.

Greenlee also was known as a numbers runner and racketeer. 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. Such opportunities were not customarily available, because of the segregated policies of white-controlled financial institutions. 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. "They made their money probably from the numbers racket, but they turned that money into something very positive. If anybody wanted to buy a house, they could not go to Mellon Bank or Dollar Savings. They had to go to old man Greenlee, or to [William A. "Buzzy"] Robinson."

Greenlee died of a stroke July 7, 1952. He is buried in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Cemetery.

Greenlee knew little about baseball when he first started out. He took interest when the promoters of the Crawford Giants ran out of money, and he decided to give a charitable donation of the money he made from a speakeasy that he owned and money he made from getting into the banking business. His large payroll attracted some big name players in the Negro leagues. He would eventually make the Crawford Giants his team by getting rid of the players that were there before him and bringing in new players. Greenlee also owned a future light-heavyweight boxing champion, which added to his reputation.