Imagine: black men, barefoot, wearing grass skirts, shirtless, with war-painted faces, uttering gibberish, affecting a crude stereotype of African tribesmen, straight out of Tarzan movies. These were the Zulu Cannibal Giants, African-American baseball players in the 1930s, making a living, clowning, barnstorming the country, delighting white patrons.
Later, this team evolved into the Ethiopian Clowns, and finally the Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns were a powerful force in black baseball from 1935 to the mid-1950s.