Jackie Robinson and Moses Fleetwood Walker: The Integration of Baseball

"A life is not important except on the impact it has on other lives." No person personifies the meaning and power of this quote like the man himself who gave it, Jackie Robinson. Yet the moment Robinson spoke these words, unbeknownst to him, he was giving tribute to a man who's ordinary statistics but level-headed passion and desire impacted Robinson on a more significant socio-political level than any player before him. Moses Fleetwood Walker dug into homeplate on the afternoon of May 1st, 1884 in a day of forgotten history, truly epitomizing the literal interpretation of Robinson's quote; no accolades or special tribute was given to Walker on the day he integrated baseball, the barrier he broke was given no recognized significance. Yet the impact his presence as a player and, later in life, an author meant everything to the life of the man who took the field with deepened resolve amid brutal hatred sixty years after Walker.

From a historical precedent, historians today who have researched "Fleet" Walker's life have bestowed much praise upon Walker's success, yet given his family background, his achievement is not without precedent. As reknown African-American History professor Nudie E. Williams writes in his article in the Journal of American Culture titled "Footnote to Trivia: Moses Fleetwood Walker and the All-American Dream," Walker's father became the first African-American doctor in Walker's hometown of Steubenville, Ohio, which had a monumental impact in transitioning public perception of African-American's from that of slavery to a qualified and contributing memeber of American society. Walker's father, Moses Fleetwood Walker Sr., was successful in his ventures as a doctor and allowed Walker to shield his fifth oldest son "Fleet" from the horrors of slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Such an upbringing facilitated Walker's academic success as he attended the University of Michigan Law School and allowed him to dream beyond the realities of racial injustice during the postbellum era and partake in a game that was growing in popularity throughout the country. This allows Walker, with his unique upbringing in comparison to most African-Americans at this time, the unparalleled ability to break into the ranks of the professionals and break the non-binding law which was effective in barring African-Americans the ability to play professional baseball. Walker's ability to break the socially suffocating "Gentlemen's Agreement" was only temporary in that it would be 63 years before another African-American could truly break the vice of social injustice surrounding baseball.

Inevitably, comparisons between the man who truly integrated baseball and the man who the baseball world recognizes will be made to see if any connection can be made to link the two men to one of sports greatest accomplishments. Yet, symbolic meaning is what links Moses Fleetwood Walker and Jackie Robinson to the integration of baseball, and what makes "Fleet Walker" the perfect, unassuming complement to what baseball recognizes as "Jackie Robinson Day." Robinson, who grew up in the poverty and racial bigotry of the South before moving westward to California, represents all that Moses Fleetwood Walker was not. Whereas Walker lived a comparitively priveleged childhood with a strong mother and father figure in his life while excelling academically, Robinson lived in poverty stricken rural Georgia with only a mother who worked multuiple jobs to just get her kids through school. Analysis of both Walker's and Robinson's backgrounds reveals why the American public became so enamored with annointing Robinson as the integrator of baseball, for his story signified the "American Dream;"a man who became a four sport athlete in college and an eventual Hall-of-Famer that had nothing but will and desire to help realize his dreams. Yet Walker, with his contrast in background, had his childhood most resemble whites during his time period and, in political, social and economic terms, had more in common with the average white ballplayer than he did with Jackie Robinson. Yet, as Nudie E. Williams later reiterates in his article, "Walker's upbringing was the perfect catalyst for social change" during the Gilded Age. Walker faced just as many, if not more, culturally and racially induced barriers in his rise to the professional ranks than Robinson yet his academic upbringing allowed him to adjust to social norms and his intelllectual abilities allowed him to alleviate and break social norms not with prodigious skill, like Robinson, but with social perception.
Life after baseball, an idea that haunts many ballplayers who have had their life consumed by singular love for a sport for so long, proved to haunt Fleet Walker on a much different level. Walker's life after baseball was personified by a social struggle unique to Walker in that his experiences on the field resulted in his deep rooted belief that racial intolerance made it impossible for America's "melting pot" of cultures to live together in equilibrium. This prevailing notion had its origins to the prejudice he faced on the field, but were magnified by an event in April of 1891 in which Walker was charged with 2nd degree murder after being attacked by a group of white men in Syracuse, New York. Due to his presence in a largely white restaurant, the group of men attacked Walker and in an act of self-defense he stabbed one man to death. Though many in the media called for Walker to be found guilty, he was later acquited when the defense clearly showed that Walker was attacked first and stabbed the men in fear of his own life. Such a traumatic event only furthered Walker's commitment to writing his 47-page pamphlet titled Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of the Negro Race in America. In that pamphlet he recommended African Americans emigrate to Africa: "the only practical and permanent solution of the present and future race troubles in the United States is entire separation by emigration of the Negro from America." He warned "The Negro race will be a menace and the source of discontent as long as it remains in large numbers in the United States. The time is growing very near when the whites of the United States must either settle this problem by deportation, or else be willing to accept a reign of terror such as the world has never seen in a civilized country." Such extreme, militant sentiment is a sad reflection upon a man who's act of bravery and courage to play the game he loved became an afterthought as the intellect he possesed to break the color barrier became focused on the separation of races as the only true means for equality in America.

1884: Growth and Integration in Major League Baseball

For all its sheer mystique and symbolic beauty, the ability to render the greatest and most powerful nation silent with the crack of a maple wooden bat and bounce of a minuscule white ball does great justice to putting in perspective the game of baseball's profound effect upon the United States of America. Never has a sport like baseball had its history so closely connected to America's history, on a social, political and economic level; the immense struggles and celebrated successes of the U.S. can be interwoven in the pages of our national pastime. Yet, as we stand here today, May 1st, 1884, a young unassuming Michigan Law graduate from working-class Oberlin, Ohio took the field behind home plate with a few boos and sneers directed towards him. Those jeers weren't directed at his skills, which were more than adequate, or his demeanor, which was quite calm given the enormity of the moment; No, Moses Fleetwood Walker was under wrath from the crowd not for what he had already done, but what he was about to do; be the first African-American to play in a Major League Baseball game. In an era in the midst of great social upheaval, folks today have gone to bed tonight not knowing that a racial barrier was broken, while planting the seeds for an unequaled social revolution; or, as Walker called it, "just another day at the ballpark."

Moses, or "Fleet" Walker as he is affectionately called, had his roots in baseball not from an overly athletic background, but because he exemplifies the intellect that is required at this time to play baseball. Though an everyday sport in most aspects, professional baseball has been reserved for the upper class intellectuals due to its sometimes agonizing costs to play it and its lack of widespread recognition. Despite the stereotypes attributed to Walker's skin color, his educational background and intellectual prowess are important attributes in gaining the respect of his resentful teammates. A graduate of Oberlin College, Walker also was a student in the prestigious University of Michigan Law School; a resume made even more impressive given that African-Americans are rarely let into universities, much less prestigious law schools. Yet, as Walker was attending Law School, he was also playing baseball for Michigan. His natural gifts in the game of baseball were well timed as he decided to join the minor league ranks to help pay for his law school tuition. Walker joined the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883, where he was welcomed to the professional ranks through the harsh reality of race relations. A famous ballplayer still well-renowned throughout the world of baseball here in the Mid-West, a player by the name of Cap Anson, plays for the Chicago White Stockings as a power hitting first baseman. As a result of his unrelenting ego and racist inclinations, once Anson saw Walker take the field in a minor-league exhibition game in 1883, he refused to play in the game. This act by arguably baseball's most prominent player reveals the deep racial underpinnings within our current Gilded Age society. A ballplayer, who bats, throws, fields and rides the occasional pinewood for a few innings just like every other of our time, cannot earn his respect on the field. Instead, hatred and injustice negate all the qualities of fair play and sportsmanship that the game of baseball so dearly values. Though cooler heads prevailed and Anson was forced to play in fear of forfeiting the game, no significance was lost in Anson's stance towards playing with "Fleet" Walker in that it symbolizes even when it's only a minor-league exhibition game, the social virtues of present-day society shine through.

The term, "breaking the color barrier" represents different aspects in the context of each society. With the somewhat recent failure of the Freedman's Bureau and with added burdens of poll taxes and grandfather clauses added to voting restrictions, breaking the color barrier for African-Americans in terms of life here and now in 1884 may mean the ability to participate and function within the confines of their own country. Which is why any achievement, no matter what realm it may take place in, can illuminate the breaking signs of racial injustice. A landmark day in the seemingly never-ending struggle of civil rights? On the 1st of May, no one who came to the ballpark to see the Toledo Blue Stockings take on the Louisville Eclipse even thought of such a preposterous description to attach to this normal regular season game. Any significance in who was starting at catcher for the Blue Stockings on this day may be easily magnified by the impact it has on perceptions between black and white. In a time which racial injustice rears its ugly head in all corners of American life, if there could be, whether metaphorically or physically speaking, a "playing field" in which race only judges the shade of their skin and not their abilities as a human being. But, before it's revealed how Moses Fleetwood Walker made history on this day, we must analyze the society in which we live to reveal the true value of his merits. We live in a time in which lynchings are deemed social gatherings and even in the game of baseball the ever ironic "gentleman's agreement" means the act of excluding African-Americans from playing professional baseball. Such blatant forms of prejudice and injustice have not gone unchallenged by "Fleet" Walker himself. At this time, the International League and Ohio League (which Walker plays under) has just passed a law that states each team is allowed only one African-American player. As a highly educated man, Walker had finally reached a bursting point and wrote an eloquent and passionate reply to the Ohio State League President stating "The law is a disgrace to the present age, and casts derision at the laws of Ohio-the voice of the people-that say all men are equal. I would suggest that your honorable body, in case that black law is not repealed, pass one making it criminal for a colored man or woman to be found on a ball ground...There should be some broader cause-such as a lack of ability, behavior and intelligence- for barring a player, rather than his color." It was a man of such conviction, as his fiery letter shows, that on a humid spring afternoon took the field among uncertainty of the times. Yearning just to be a man of his time and respected by his teammates and fans; yet it took a more than ordinary man in a less than ordinary time to add a special new chapter in baseball's history.