COLUMBUS – Sixty-four years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, Ohio native Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first African-American to play professional baseball, because there was no color barrier to break.
Yet.
If a bill that cleared the Ohio House by a unanimous vote on Wednesday becomes law, Oct. 7 would be designated “Moses Fleetwood Walker Day” in the state, marking Walker’s birth in Mt. Pleasant in 1856.
“In the face of unrelenting discrimination, Moses Fleetwood Walker persevered and overcame, and his story as the first African American professional baseball player still inspires even today,” said Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus), who co-sponsored the measure with Thomas West (D-Canton).
“It is also a reminder that sometimes after we get something right, we lose our way, and that the fight for equality and justice for all never ends,” said Leland, who also serves on the board of trustees for the Columbus Clippers.
Walker’s skill as a catcher and hitter for Oberlin College led to his being signed by the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883, where he would begin his professional baseball career, Leland said.
Walker’s career was cut short when both the American Association and the National League unofficially banned African American players in 1889.
It would not be until 1947 when that ban was finally broken by the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson.
Raised in Steubenville, Walker attended enrolled at Oberlin in 1877 and played on the school’s first varsity baseball team.
Once passed by the Ohio House this afternoon, the bill will be referred to the Ohio Senate for further consideration and potential passage to Gov. Kasich’s desk.
Similar legislation was previously introduced during the 131st General assembly received wide bipartisan support and unanimously passed out of the House of Representatives but was not enacted.