Everything about Moses Fleetwood Walker totally explained
Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker (
October 7 1857 –
May 11 1924) was an
American baseball player and
author who is credited with being the first
African American to play
professional baseball at the
major league level.
Baseball career
Walker was born in
Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the son of Dr. Moses W. Walker, the first African-American physician in Mount Pleasant. He enrolled in
Oberlin College in 1878 and played on the college's first varsity baseball team in the spring of 1881. He then transferred to the
University of Michigan law school the following fall. Walker played varsity baseball for Michigan in 1882.
Walker signed with the
minor league Northwestern League Toledo Blue Stockings in
1883, in the days before
catchers wore any equipment, even to the point of being bare-handed. Walker had his first encounter with future
Hall of Famer
Cap Anson that year, when Toledo played an exhibition game against the
Chicago White Stockings on
August 10. Anson refused to play with Walker on the field. Manager
Charlie Morton played Walker, and told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play. Anson then agreed to play.
In
1884 Toledo joined the
American Association, which was a
major league at that time in competition with the National League. Walker made his major league debut on
May 1 versus the
Louisville Eclipse. His brother,
Welday Walker, later joined him on the team, playing in six games.
Walker's teammate and star pitcher,
Tony Mullane, stated Walker "was the best catcher I ever worked with, but I disliked a Negro and whenever I'd to pitch to him I used to pitch anything I wanted without looking at his signals."
Walker suffered a season-ending injury in July, and Toledo ended the year going out of business. Walker returned to the minor leagues in, and played in the
Western League for Cleveland, which folded in June. He then played for Waterbury in the
Eastern League though .
In Walker moved to the
International League Newark Little Giants. He caught for star pitcher
George Stovey, forming the first known African-American battery. On
July 14, the
Chicago White Stockings played an exhibition game against the Little Giants. Contrary to some modern-day writers, Anson didn't have a second encounter with Walker that day (Walker was apparently injured, having last played on
July 11, and wouldn't play again until
July 26). But Stovey had been listed as the game's scheduled starting pitcher, in the
Newark News of
July 14. Only days after the game was it reported (in the
Newark Sunday Call) that, "Stovey was expected to pitch in the Chicago game. It was announced on the ground that he was sulking, but it has since been given out that Anson objected to a colored man playing. If this be true, and the crowd had known it, Mr. Anson would have received hisses instead of the applause that was given him when he first stepped to the bat." On the morning of the day of game, International League owners had voted 6-to-4 to exclude African-American players from future contracts.
In the off-season, the International League modified its ban on black players, and Walker signed with the
Syracuse, New York franchise for . In September 1888, Walker did have his second incident with Anson. When Chicago was at Syracuse for an exhibition game, Anson refused to start the game when he saw Walker's name on the scorecard as catcher. "Big Anson at once refused to play the game with Walker behind the bat on account of the Star catcher’s color," the
Syracuse Herald said. Syracuse relented and someone else did the catching.
Walker remained in Syracuse until the team released him in July .
Shortly thereafter, the
American Association and the
National League both unofficially banned African-American players, making the adoption of
Jim Crow in baseball complete. Baseball would remain segregated until
1946 when
Jackie Robinson popularly "broke the
color barrier" in professional baseball when he played for the
Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league affiliate in
Montreal.
Life after baseball
Walker was attacked by a group of white men in
Syracuse, New York in April 1891. He stabbed and killed a man named Patrick Murray during the attack.
The Sporting Life reported "Walker drew a knife and made a stroke at his assailant. The knife entered Murray's groin, inflicting a fatal wound. Murray's friends started after Walker with shouts of 'Kill him! Kill him!' He escaped but was captured by the police, and [was] locked up."
Walker was charged with second-degree murder and claimed self-defense. He was acquitted of all charges on
June 3 1891. The
Cleveland Gazette reported "When the verdict was announced the court house was thronged with spectators, who received it with a tremendous roar of cheers... Walker is the hero of the hour."
Walker became a supporter of
Black nationalism and came to believe
racial integration would fail in the
United States. In
1908 he published a 47-page pamphlet titled
Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of the Negro Race in America. In that pamphlet he recommended African Americans immigrate to
Africa: "the only practical and permanent solution of the present and future race troubles in the United States is entire separation by emigration of the Negro from America." He warned "The Negro race will be a menace and the source of discontent as long as it remains in large numbers in the United States. The time is growing very near when the whites of the United States must either settle this problem by deportation, or else be willing to accept a reign of terror such as the world has never seen in a civilized country."
He died
May 11 1924 in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Baseball history
Walker has traditionally been credited as the first African-American major league player. Recent research by the
Society for American Baseball Research indicates
William Edward White, who played one game for the
Providence Grays in, may have been the first.
William Edward White was the son of a white former slaveholder from
Georgia and his mixed-race mistress. White attended college at
Brown University where he also played varsity baseball. He filled in for one game for the Grays on
June 21 when the Providence team was short-handed.
It is unclear, however, if White's contemporaries in
Rhode Island knew of his racial background. White's race is never mentioned in any accounts of his baseball exploits at Brown or with Providence. Furthermore, the
1880 census, as well as several later censuses, indicate his race as "white." He may have been
passing as a white man during his time in Rhode Island.
Further Information
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