By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Black athletes have reshaped American sports, breaking records and expanding access to opportunities long denied to them. While modern stars such as Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and professional tennis standout Coco Gauff dominate today’s headlines, earlier generations of Black athletes laid the groundwork, often without widespread recognition.
Some of these pioneers were celebrated in their time, but many saw their achievements overshadowed or erased. Their names rarely made headlines, yet their fearlessness and tenacity permanently altered the sports they loved.
“Most Black athletes were not treated equitably or fairly in White controlled sports institutions,” said Dr. Dexter Blackman, associate professor and director of African American and African Diaspora Studies and History and Geography at Morgan State University. “Therefore, they used their positions to protest, which brought them some measure of relief, but also made conditions better for the next generation of athletes.”
Moses Fleetwood Walker
Decades before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s (MLB) color line in 1947, Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first African American to play in the major leagues during the 19th century.
Walker played baseball while a student at the University of Michigan, earning money as a catcher. His professional experience included single games for the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland in August 1881, the New Castle, Pennsylvania, Neshannocks in 1882, and the Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern League in 1883.
In 1884, the Toledo Blue Stockings moved from the minor leagues to the American League Association, then considered a major league. Between May 1 and Sept. 4, 1884 Walker appeared in 42 professional baseball games for Toledo. His brother, Weldy, played with him as an outfielder, for a few games, according to information released by MLB. Walker broke his rib during the season and after recovering and playing his final game, no other African-American player appeared in the major leagues until Robinson’s debut more than six decades later in 1947.
Baltimore Black Sox
The Baltimore Black Sox were among the early pioneers of professional baseball for Black Americans in the 1920s. Founded in 1916 as an independent team, they later became a charter member of the Eastern Colored League in 1923.
Leagues such as the ECL and the American Negro League were formed in response to the exclusion of Black players from Major League Baseball under the color line.
“Any established star in the Negro Leagues would have been able to play on any major league team and continue to perform at his usual level,” said Sammy J. Miller in a research journal on the history of baseball. “Name any major league ballpark of the era and chances are, Negro League games were played there. The same can be said for most minor league parks as well.”
While competing in the ECL, the Black Sox finished second three times in six seasons. After the league folded midway through the 1928 season, the team joined the American Negro League and found greater success. When the ANL formed in 1929, the Black Sox won a pennant during the league’s lone season.
After returning to independent play and a brief stint in the East–West League in 1932, the Black Sox joined the restored Negro National League under new ownership in 1933. Financial and competitive struggles during the Great Depression led to the team folding after that season.
William Henry Lewis
William Henry Lewis is the first Black football player to be named an All-American, one of the highest honors awarded to collegiate athletes.
The son of formerly enslaved parents, Lewis began college at age 15 at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute before transferring to Amherst College, where he played football. He graduated in 1891 and later attended Harvard Law School, earning a spot on the varsity football team.
Lewis became the first Black team captain in Harvard history and was named an All-American while at Harvard.
Off the field, Lewis made a name for himself as a lawyer. He was one of the first three Black men to be admitted to the American Bar Association, according to information released by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. Lewis served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Theodore Roosevelt named him assistant United States Attorney for Boston in 1903. Lewis served in that role until 1906. The following year he became assistant United States Attorney for immigration and naturalization for the New England States, a position he held from 1907 to 1911. At that time, he was elevated to assistant attorney general of the United States by President William Howard Taft.