The first recorded game of baseball in America occurred on June 19, 1846 in Hoboken, New Jersey. In its first two decades the sport was racially integrated but after the Civil War, African American baseball players were banned from the National Association of Amateur Baseball … Read MoreThe Negro Baseball Leagues (1920-1950)
Effa Louise Manley, a black woman, was one of the first women of any race to run a baseball team. She was co-owner, along with her husband Abe Manley, of the Negro League Baseball Team the Newark Eagles. Manley was born on March 27, 1897 … Read MoreEffa Louise Manley (1897-1981)
Wilson Alexander, Sr. was the third of seven children born on in 1919 to Charles and Pearl Alexander of St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. Alexander grew up in a a tight-knit community of sugar plantation sharecroppers in southern Louisiana. On July 24, 1942, he was drafted … Read MoreWilson “Ducktail” Alexander, Sr. (1919-1950)
Twenty-three-year-old Sean Elijah Bell, the victim of a violent police shooting in 2006, was born on May 18, 1983, to William and Valerie Bell. As a child, Bell was interested in acting and played baseball. According to Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Poultre, in an interview with … Read MoreSean Elijah Bell (1983-2006)
Throughout his 20 seasons in baseball, Derek Jeter established himself as a New York Yankees legend. Growing up as a Yankee fan and having played his entire career with the franchise, his play was synonymous with the team’s success. With on-field talent matching his charismatic … Read MoreDerek Jeter (1974- )
Oscar Juliuss Grant III was a resident of Oakland, California, and unfortunately is best known for being killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer in the early hours of New Year’s Day in 2009. Grant was born to Oscar Grant Jr. and … Read MoreOscar Juliuss Grant, III (1986-2009)
Poster for Seattle Steelheads at Borchert Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 12, 1946 “Image Ownership: David Eskenazi Collection” The Seattle Steelheads were the all-black minor league baseball team formed in the spring of 1946 as part of the West Coast Negro Baseball League organized by Abe … Read MoreSeattle Steelheads (1946)
Esteemed educator, legendary basketball coach, and successful university president, Harrison Wilson Jr. was born on April 21, 1925, in Amsterdam, a small city in upstate New York. His mother Marguerite Ayers was a school teacher, and his father Harrison Wilson Sr. worked in construction. Dr. … Read MoreHarrison B. Wilson Jr. (1925-2019)
George Albert Flippin, born in Point Isable, Ohio, in 1868, was a prominent athlete and physician in Nebraska, who broke racial barriers in collegiate football and medicine for African Americans. The product of an interracial marriage, George’s father, Charles Albert Flippin, had served as a … Read MoreGeorge Albert Flippin (1868-1929)
