who was the black baseball player before jackie robinson
Moses Fleetwood Walker played one season, 1884, in the majors, 63 years before Jackie Robinson's debut. Mark Palmer wanders through a cemetery in a southeastern Ohio steel town looking for a man most of the world has forgotten. Years ago, Palmer's grandmother told him the story of the man buried here. That's my uncle, she said, your great-grand uncle. His name was Moses Fleetwood Walker, and he was the first black baseball player in the major leagues. Advertisement Palmer occasionally mentioned this to his boyhood friends.
The following year, 1884, Toledo moved up to the major leagues, playing against teams such as the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals and Brooklyn Atlantics as part of the American Assn. Around midseason, Walker's younger brother, Weldy Wilberforce Walker, joined him on the team, becoming the third and final black major leaguer before Jackie Robinson.