Moses Fleetwood Walker - Baseball career, Life after baseball, Baseball history, External links
Baseball player, businessman, and civil-rights pioneer, born in Mt Pleasant, Ohio, USA. Along with his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker (18601937), born in Steubenville, Ohio, USA, he helped organize and played on the Oberlin College varsity baseball team. In 1883 Fleet played on Toledo's Northwestern League team, and when Toledo was accepted in the American Association (1884), he became the first African-American in the major leagues, batting ·263 in 42 games and earning respect as a catcher. Welday played five games as a major league outfielder in 1884, batting ·182. In 1887 the International League voted to bar contracts with blacks, and the Walker brothers' careers soon declined. In 1889, Fleet, playing with Syracuse in the International League, became the last African-American in that league. In 1895 he killed a man in self-defence in a racial attack in Syracuse and although exonerated, he left town and went to Steubenville, Ohio, where his brother followed him. They managed a hotel there and eventually owned some motion-picture theatres. Meanwhile, the brothers had become increasingly open in their opposition to the growing segregation in American society, and Moses became the editor of the Equator, a periodical devoted to African-American concerns. In 1908 the brothers published Our Home Colony - A Treatise on the Past, Present and Future of the Negro Race in America, now regarded as ranking among the earliest of the 20th-c works to advocate the return of African-Americans to Africa. The Walker brothers even set up a travel office to aid African-Americans to go to Liberia.
Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker (October 7, 1857–May 11, 1924) was a 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 born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the son of Dr. Moses W. Walker, the first African-American physician in Mount Pleasant. 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, 1883. 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.
In 1884 Toledo joined the American Association, a professional baseball league now considered a major league by most baseball historians. Walker made his major league baseball debut on May 1, 1884 versus the Louisville Eclipse. His brother Welday Walker later joined him on the team, playing in 6 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 had 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 1885, and played in the Western League for Cleveland, which folded in June.
In 1887 Walker moved to the International League Newark Little Giants. On July 14, 1887 the Chicago White Stockings played an exhibition game against the Little Giants. Contrary to some modern-day writers, Anson did not have a second encounter with Walker that day (Walker was apparently injured, having last played on July 11 and would not play again until July 26). 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 1888. In September 1888, Walker did have his second incident with Anson. "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.
Walker remained in Syracuse until the team released him in July of 1889.
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. Walker 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. Murray's friends started after Walker with shouts of 'Kill him!
Walker was charged with second-degree murder and claimed self-defense.
Walker became a supporter of Black nationalism and came to believe racial integration would fail in the United States.
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 1879, may have been the first.
William Edward White was the son of a white former slaveholder from Georgia and his mixed-race mistress.
It is unclear, however, if White's contemporaries in Rhode Island knew of his racial background. Zang, Fleet Walker's Divided Heart (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).
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