Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in a major league in 1884, decades before Jackie Robinson in 1947. According to Major League Baseball history, Walker was a catcher for the Toledo Blue Stocking for one season. The team was a part of the American League Association, which merged with the National League in 1903. In his one year with the team, he played “42 games and finished with a .263 batting average, 40 hits and 23 RBIs.”
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research