Before Jackie: Baseball’s First African-American

While baseball honors Jackie Robinson and his breaking of the color line in 1947, let’s take a moment to celebrate Moses Fleetwood Walker.

On Wednesday, teams across the major leagues honored the late Jackie Robinson, adorning his number ‘42’ across their jerseys and remembering him for all the sacrifices he made to break the color barrier. While Robinson certainly broke the color barrier in the major leagues, he was not the first black player to ever play in the major leagues. Sixty years before Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a catcher named Fleet Walker took the field for the Toledo Blue Stockings.

Moses Fleetwood Walker was born October 7^th, 1857, in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. He was the fifth child born to Caroline and Moses W., both of whom were of mixed race. Early on in Moses’ life, the Walkers moved from Mt. Pleasant to Steubenville, Ohio where the senior Walker took up medicine. ‘Fleet’ and his brother, Welday, went to school in black schools before the Steubenville school system decided to integrate, and the two went to Steubenville High.

In 1878, Fleet enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, a school that was recognized throughout the country for enrolling blacks and women. During his freshman year, he became more and more involved in the Oberlin baseball program, a game he played as a kid. In 1880, during a game at the college between the juniors and seniors, Fleet nailed a ball out of the ballpark where one had never been hit before and Fleet became a campus celebrity. That spring, Oberlin fielded its first intercollegiate baseball team and Fleet, a catcher, played so well that he was recruited by the University of Michigan to play with their program. So Fleet and Welday left Ohio for Ann Arbor, along with Fleet’s girlfriend, Bella Taylor, who was pregnant with his child. They would marry that year.

Fleet instantly became a star on the Michigan team and was invited to play for the White Sewing Machine, a Cleveland-based squad which fielded young, budding major league stars. Upon arriving, Fleet was instantly inserted into the role of starting catcher and started to make a name for himself among baseball circles. But that summer, Fleet made his first encounter with prejudice in a game against the Louisville Eclipse in Louisville. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, dated August 22^nd, 1881:

“…players of the Eclipse Club objected to Walker playing on account of his color. In vain the Clevelands protested that he was their regular catcher, and that his withdrawal would weaken the nine.”

Cleveland decided, for everyone’s safety, to substitute Walker with the back-up catcher. However, the replacement bruised his hand and refused to come out to the field in the second inning. That is when the crowd began to call for Walker, seeing how Cleveland was laboring with the players they had on the field.

“…Vice President Carroll, of the Eclipse, walked down in the field and called on Walker to come and play. ”

“(Walker) was disinclined to do so, after the general ill-treatment he had received; but as the game seemed to be in danger of coming to an end, he consented, and started in the catcher’s stand. As he passed before the grand stand, he was greeted with cheers, and from the crowd rose cries of ‘Walker, Walker!’ He still hesitated, but finally threw off his coat and vest and stepped out to catch a ball or two and feel the bases.

“He made several brilliant throws and fine catches while the game waited. Then Johnnie Reccius and Fritz Pfeffer, of the Eclipse nine, walked off the field and went to the club house, while others objected to the playing of (Walker).

“The crowd was so pleased with his practice however, that it cheered him again and again and insisted that he play. The objection of the Eclipse players, however, was too much and Walker was compelled to retire. When it was seen that he was not to play, the crowd cheered heartily and very properly hissed the Eclipse club, and jeered their misplays for several innings, while the visitors, for whom White consented to catch, obviously under disadvantages, were cheered to the echo.”

After playing with Cleveland through the summer of 1881, Fleet returned to the University of Michigan for the 1882 season. The Wolverines went 10-3 during the 1882 season, where Fleet primarily batted second for the team. While he batted .308 that season, Fleet was gaining more attention for his excellent play behind the plate.

The following year, after finishing classes at Michigan, Fleet was contacted by William Voltz, a former sportswriter in Cleveland who had just been hired to manage the Toledo team in the Northwestern League. During that season, Fleet helped the Blue Stockings win a league championship and pocketed $2,000 while doing so, a hefty chunk of cash back in 1883. That summer, during an exhibition game, Fleet had his first run-in with National League all-star Cap Anson. After arriving in Toledo, Anson announced that his Chicago team would not take the field with Fleet in the line-up. Voltz, who planned on giving Fleet the day off anyways, decided to start Fleet in rightfield, daring Anson to walk away from his share of the gates. Anson gave in but his Chicago team did walk away with an 8-7 win.

Toledo had great success in the 1883 season, so the next year the team decided to join the American Association, in its second year as a major league. Fleet debuted on May 1^st of that year and two days later, he recorded his first major league hit. In June, his brother Welday became the second black professional baseball player, playing five games in the outfield for the Blue Stockings. Fleet played 42 games that year for Toledo, splitting games behind the plate with Deacon McGuire, who was in his first year of his long major league career, one that would last 26 years. Walker batted .263 in 1884, providing Toledo with a solid bat, good speed and a great arm, one that was described ‘as one of the best in the circuit.’ Despite Fleet’s efforts, Toledo finished 46-58, well enough for 8^th in the AA.

At the end of the year though, Fleet was released by Toledo. The team told him that they needed a more durable catcher (Fleet missed many games that year due to injuries). The real reason, however, was that the American Association decided to follow the National League in banning blacks from baseball, which was unknown to Fleet at the time. So Fleet took a job with the postal service and found a job catching for Cleveland in the Western League in 1885. Cleveland folded in June, so Fleet caught on with Waterbury of the Eastern League, where he would spend the next two years.

In 1887, Newark of the International League invited Fleet to join their squad. Along with ace pitcher George Stovey, they formed professional baseball’s first black battery. The pair even caught the eye of New York Giant infielder John Ward. After an exhibition game between Newark and the Giants, Ward inquired into the availability of Fleet and Stovey. However, Cap Anson convinced the other National League owners not to let blacks back in the NL and they agreed. Once again, Fleet was shut out of professional baseball. Newark folded that year and Fleet wrapped up his baseball career with Syracuse of the International League. He retired from the game in 1889.

Fleet had a rough baseball career, encountering racism on the field. While he was very popular with the fans everywhere who went for his all-out style of play, many teammates and opponents did not perceive Walker due to his race. Toledo’s star pitcher in 1884, Tony Mullane, said while Walker “was the best catcher he ever worked with,” he disliked Walker due to his race. Mullane said he didn’t trust him and never looked at Fleet’s fingers for signals, which attributed to Walker’s injuries while in Toledo, specifically broken ribs and bruised hands.

In April of 1891, Fleet was attacked by a group of white men in Syracuse, where he settled after his playing career. In self-defense, Walker pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed one of the assailants. Walker was captured by police and charged with second-degree murder. On June 3^rd of that year, Walker was acquitted of all charges and the verdict was greeted with cheers by the gathering of people in the courthouse. According to the Cleveland Gazette: “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.”

Later in his life, Walker became an author when he published the book, Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of the Negro Race in America. In the book, he wrote that African-Americans should immigrate to Africa as he believed that racial integration would fail in the States. In the book, he wrote: “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…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.”

Sadly, Walker had a battle with alcoholism and passed away on May 11, 1924 in Cleveland. Moses Fleetwood Walker was 67. While he, Jackie Robinson, and every other black baseball player during the days of racial prejudice encountered many bumps on the road in their baseball careers, no one paid as dearly as Walker. Who knows what kind of professional baseball player Walker would have become if he was allowed more than one season to showcase his talents. So on a week where we honor the great Jackie Robinson for all he has done for the great game of baseball, please remember the story of Moses Fleetwood Walker.