Sports History, a view at Black History in Baseball and the First black ball player

By Frank Solares


February is known as Black History month and we all respect the hard work that Americans of any Color and Ethnic background have given us throughout the years.

I am of the opinion that Black History should not be taught one month a year. It is after all American History regardless of skin color. So each month we will cover a different aspect of black history in baseball.

Baseball has a rich tradition and the history behind this great game is unparallel. Since this is black history we will concentrate on the myth that Jackie Robinson was the first man to integrate a baseball team.

Jackie Robinson was the first to integrate MLB when he joined the Dodgers who had all white baseball players. All this is true and in fact this lead to other men joining MLB there after.

According to the book written by Christian, Ralph J. (2006) "Bud Fowler: The First African American Professional. And Wikipedia.

The first black professional baseball player Was John Walker Jackson who later changed his name to John Fowler, he was known as Bud Fowler. Legend has it was due to the fact that he called everyone Bud. According to Wikipedia Bud was born March 16 1858.

Records kept by Iowa Heritage Illustrated, 87(1): 28-32 Fowler played for a team in Niles Ohio in 1883 and in Stillwater Minnesota in 1884.

There is an image of a black man playing baseball on an all white team. According to Biographer L Robert Davis “Fowler is first mentioned as a player in April 1878 when he pitched for a team in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Later that month, he pitched a game for the Lynn Live Oaks against the Boston Nationals. He finished that season with Worcester. Largely supporting himself as a barber, he continued to play for teams in New England and Canada for the next four years.”

I am not smart enough to know if he was in fact the first black man to play organized baseball other than the Negro League but I surely know that it was not Jackie Robinson based on the accounts I have read.

We might never know who was the first but we must respect the fact that this man existed and he was not white.