Black History

Moses Fleetwood Walker; Baseball’s True First

Moses Fleetwood Walker (1856–1924) took the field against the Louisville Eclipse on May 1, 1884, making him the first African American to play in a professional baseball game. According to baseball historians, it was the worst game of Walker’s career, as he went hitless in four at-bats and committed four errors. Still, the native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and star athlete at Oberlin College went on to have a brief (September 1884) yet successful career with the Blue Stockings.

Published

2 years ago

May 30, 2022

Tamara Shiloh

Moses Fleetwood Walker, circa 1884. From the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

By Tamara Shiloh

Some 63 years before Jackie Robinson is credited as the first African American in Major League Baseball (April 15, 1947), Moses Fleetwood Walker (1856–1924) became the true first to break the sport’s color barrier.

The American Association (today, the American League) was formed at the opening of the 1884 baseball season. Their goal was to be in competition with the National League. The Toledo Blue Stockings were added as one of the league’s participating franchises. The starting catcher would be Walker.

Walker took the field against the Louisville Eclipse on May 1, 1884, making him the first African American to play in a professional baseball game. According to baseball historians, it was the worst game of Walker’s career, as he went hitless in four at-bats and committed four errors.

Still, the native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and star athlete at Oberlin College went on to have a brief (September 1884) yet successful career with the Blue Stockings.

Walker was the last African American to participate on the major league level before Robinson.

Prior to the Blue Stockings, Walker played for semi-professional and minor league baseball clubs. But how Walker first came to the game is unknown. According to David W. Zang, Walker’s biographer, baseball was popular among children in Steubenville where he was raised. While in Oberlin’s preparatory program, Walker became the prep team’s catcher and leadoff hitter.

Oberlin men played baseball as early as 1865, including a “jet-black” first baseman whose presence suggested Walker was not the college’s first Black baseball player.

After baseball, Walker’s personal life seemed overrun with friction.

In 1891, he was involved in an altercation outside a saloon with a group of four white men exchanging racial insults. One of them hit Walker in the head with a stone. Walker then fatally stabbed his attacker with a pocketknife.

He surrendered to the police and was charged with second-degree murder but was later found not guilty. After, Walker returned to Steubenville where he had worked for the postal service.

Walker’s wife, Arbella, died in 1895. Three years later he was found guilty of mail robbery and sentenced to one year in prison, which he served in the Miami County and Jefferson County jails in Troy, Ohio.

After his release, he jointly owned the Union Hotel in Steubenville with his brother Weldy and managed the Opera House, a movie theater in nearby Cadiz, Ohio. Walker soon gained respect as a businessman in the community. Walker later patented inventions that improved film reels when nickelodeons became popularized. He was a staunch advocate of Black nationalism and jointly edited a newspaper, The Equator, with Weldy. He authored “Our Home Colony” to explore ideas about emigrating back to Africa.

Walker died of lobar pneumonia in 1924. He was 67.

Learn more about the two Black athletes who helped integrate Major League Baseball and the challenges they faced in “Jackie Robinson and Moses Fleetwood Walker: The Lives and Careers of the Players Who Integrated Major League Baseball” by the Charles Rivers Editors.

Tamara Shiloh

About Tamara Shiloh

Tamara Shiloh has published the first two books in her historical fiction chapter book series, Just Imagine…What If There Were No Black People in the World is about African American inventors, scientists and other notable Black people in history. The two books are Jaxon’s Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists and Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown. Tamara Shiloh has also written a book a picture book for Scholastic, Cameron Teaches Black History, that will be available in June, 2022.

Tamara Shiloh’s other writing experiences include: writing the Black History column for the Post Newspaper in the Bay area, Creator and Instruction of the black History Class for Educators a professional development class for teachers and her non-profit offers a free Black History literacy/STEM/Podcast class for kids 3d – 8th grade which also includes the Let’s Go Learn Reading and Essence and tutorial program. She is also the owner of the Multicultural Bookstore and Gifts, in Richmond, California,

Previously in her early life she was the /Editor-in-Chief of Desert Diamonds Magazine, highlighting the accomplishments of minority women in Nevada; assisting with the creation, design and writing of a Los Angeles-based, herbal magazine entitled Herbal Essence; editorial contribution to Homes of Color; Editor-in-Chief of Black Insight Magazine, the first digital, interactive magazine for African Americans; profile creations for sports figures on the now defunct PublicFigure.com; newsletters for various businesses and organizations; and her own Las Vegas community newsletter, Tween Time News, a monthly publication highlighting music entertainment in the various venues of Las Vegas.

She is a member of:

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)

Richmond Chamber of Commerce

Point Richmond Business Association

National Association of Professional Women (NAPW)

Independent Book Publishers Association (IPBA)

California Writers Club-Berkeley & Marin

Richmond CA Kiwanis

Richmond CA Rotary

Bay Area Girls Club

Tamara Shiloh, a native of Northern California, has two adult children, one grandson and four great-grand sons. She resides in Point Richmond, CA with her husband, Ernest.

www.multiculturalbookstore.com

Posts by Tamara Shiloh | Website

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Tamara Shiloh

About Tamara Shiloh

Tamara Shiloh has published the first two books in her historical fiction chapter book series, Just Imagine…What If There Were No Black People in the World is about African American inventors, scientists and other notable Black people in history. The two books are Jaxon’s Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists and Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown. Tamara Shiloh has also written a book a picture book for Scholastic, Cameron Teaches Black History, that will be available in June, 2022. Tamara Shiloh’s other writing experiences include: writing the Black History column for the Post Newspaper in the Bay area, Creator and Instruction of the black History Class for Educators a professional development class for teachers and her non-profit offers a free Black History literacy/STEM/Podcast class for kids 3d – 8th grade which also includes the Let’s Go Learn Reading and Essence and tutorial program. She is also the owner of the Multicultural Bookstore and Gifts, in Richmond, California, Previously in her early life she was the /Editor-in-Chief of Desert Diamonds Magazine, highlighting the accomplishments of minority women in Nevada; assisting with the creation, design and writing of a Los Angeles-based, herbal magazine entitled Herbal Essence; editorial contribution to Homes of Color; Editor-in-Chief of Black Insight Magazine, the first digital, interactive magazine for African Americans; profile creations for sports figures on the now defunct PublicFigure.com; newsletters for various businesses and organizations; and her own Las Vegas community newsletter, Tween Time News, a monthly publication highlighting music entertainment in the various venues of Las Vegas. She is a member of:

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
Richmond Chamber of Commerce
Point Richmond Business Association
National Association of Professional Women (NAPW)
Independent Book Publishers Association (IPBA)
California Writers Club-Berkeley & Marin
Richmond CA Kiwanis
Richmond CA Rotary
Bay Area Girls Club

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024

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1 day ago

September 6, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024

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1 week ago

August 30, 2024

Oakland Post

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Black History

The Value of the Black Vote

It’s time to take control of our own narrative: When they say ‘January 6’ we say “yeah, but how about Jan. 7?’ JUNETEENTH – JAN. 7. In the vast chronicle of American history, two dates in particular have come to symbolize the nation’s ongoing journey towards making its founding ideal of democracy a reality for all its citizens – Juneteenth and January 7th.

Published

1 week ago

August 28, 2024

Oakland Post

In May, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Congressman James Clyburn. Photo courtesy of Congressman James Clyburn.

By J. Barry Washington

Special to The Post

It’s time to take control of our own narrative: When they say ‘January 6^’ we say “yeah, but how about Jan. 7?’

JUNETEENTH – JAN. 7

In the vast chronicle of American history, two dates in particular have come to symbolize the nation’s ongoing journey towards making its founding ideal of democracy a reality for all its citizens – Juneteenth and January 7th.

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19, commemorates June 19, 1865 – the day the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation over two years earlier.

While the Emancipation Proclamation had officially abolished slavery in 1863, it could not be enforced in places still under Confederate control until Union troops arrived to enforce the order. Juneteenth thus marks the definitive end of slavery in the United States – a pivotal milestone in the struggle to realize America’s professed commitment to liberty and equality.

For more than a century-and-a-half since, Juneteenth has been celebrated by African American communities as a hard-won affirmation of their long-denied rights and humanity.

In 2021, it was also enshrined as a federal holiday with the passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. This official recognition underscored Juneteenth’s status as a commemoration not just of the end of slavery, but of Black Americans’ perseverance in the face of bondage and injustice to continually hold America to its founding promise of freedom for all.

At the other end of the historical spectrum lies the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of rioters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Spurred by the false claims of widespread voter fraud propagated by former President Donald Trump and his allies, the insurrectionists sought to prevent the congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory through force and intimidation.

The value of the Black vote during the Jan. 7, 2021, certification of the presidential election cannot be overstated. The unprecedented turnout of Black voters, particularly in key swing states, played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the election.

Despite facing numerous obstacles, including voter suppression efforts and the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black voters turned out in record numbers, exercising their fundamental right to have their voices heard.

The unwavering commitment of Black voters to uphold the principles of democracy served as a bulwark against these nefarious efforts, ensuring that the will of the people was respected, and the peaceful transfer of power could proceed.

The Black vote’s impact extended beyond the immediate electoral outcome, as it also served as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for equal rights and representation in the United States.

The resilience and determination displayed by Black voters in the face of adversity resonated across the nation, inspiring others to defend the sanctity of the democratic process and uphold the values upon which the country was founded.

Juneteenth marked the official beginning of the still ongoing struggle for former slaves of color to realize the full benefits and responsibilities of citizenship in this country.

We have again fulfilled our responsibilities by being the difference on Jan. 7, 2021, by nullifying the efforts of the January 6 mob. Now it’s time for the descendants of those former slaves of color to realize maximum benefits of that citizenship.