Jackie Robinson: The First African-American Baseball Player

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The Real First African-American Baseball Player Many people when you ask them about the first African American baseball player will respond with a widely accepted answer, Jackie Robinson. While he did break a barrier that had been up for more than sixty years, there were multiple players who came before him including two in the major leagues. While this is no reason to ignore what Robinson did it is just that people wrongly accept him as the first. The first African-American baseball players actually brothers Moses Fleetwood Walker and Weldy Walker. In this paper though I will be talking about the first of the two, Moses. Moses Fleetwood Walker was born on October 7th, 1856 in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Son of mulatto parents (people of mixed white-black …show more content…
After graduating from high school, Walker enrolled at Oberlin College in 1878 where he went on to major in philosophy and in the arts. He went on to join the team in 1881 when the school unbanned off campus competition. He impressed others so much that season he was given the chance to transfer to Michigan University where he hit with a .308 batting average. He started to play semi-pro baseball during his time with the University of Michigan. During his time with his first semi-pro team the other team refused to play everytime he went behind the plate to play his catching position. His first time in organized baseball was in mid-1883, when he left his studies at UofM to go play for the Toledo Blue Stockings, a minor league team at the team. He hit for a 253. batting average, which is poor for these times, but then for a catcher those were amazing numbers. He also became known for his durability behind the plate at a time where there was little protection and very poor gloves. The very next year he made history, even though the major leagues were only eight years old it was still a milestone achievement. Due to his team's success the Toledo Blue Stockings became apart of
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