People, Locations, Episodes

Moses Fleetwood Walker, Baseball Player born

*Moses Walker was born on this date in 1856.  He was a Black professional baseball player and businessman.  Moses Fleetwood Walker was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio.  Walker’s parents were Moses W. Walker and Caroline O’Harra.    When Walker was three years old, the family moved 20 miles northeast to Steubenville, where his father became one of the first Black […]

Oliver Lewis, Horse Jockey born

*Oliver Lewis’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1856. He was a Black horse jockey in thoroughbred racing. Lewis was born in Fayette County, Kentucky. On May 17, 1875, at 19, Lewis won the very first Kentucky Derby aboard Aristides. The pair won by two reported lengths, setting a new American record time for […]

Bud Fowler, Baseball Player born.

*Bud Fowler was born on this date in 1858. He was a Black baseball player, manager, club organizer, and barber. From Fort Plain, New York, the son of a hop-picker and barber, Bud Fowler, was christened John W. Jackson. His father had escaped from slavery and migrated to New York. In 1859, his family moved […]

William White, Baseball Player born

*This date, 1860, is celebrated as the birth date of William White, a 19th-century Black baseball player.   William Edward White was the son of a plantation owner from Milner, Georgia, Andrew Jackson White, and his black slave, Hannah. Brown University records give Milner as the student’s birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 […]

Isaac Burns Murphy, Horse Jockey born

This date marks the birth of Isaac Burns Murphy in 1861. He was a Black jockey and Horse Racing legend.

Murphy was part of the superabundance of Black jockeys in the history of horse racing. African American jockeys rode fourteen of the fifteen horses in the first Kentucky Derby. The horse racing sport was built with the talents of Black people whose jobs typically included trainer, jockey, and owner. One extraordinary jockey in this history was Issac Burns Murphy. Murphy was born in 1861 in Fayette County.

Peter Jackson, Boxer born

On this date in 1861, Peter Jackson was born. He was an African American boxer.

Arthur Wharton, British Soccer Player born

*Arthur Wharton was born on this date in 1865. He was a Black British football player. Wharton was born in Jamestown, Gold Coast (now part of Accra, Ghana). His father, Henry Wharton, was a Grenadian missionary of Scottish and West African descent, while his mother, Annie Florence Egyriba, was a member of the Fante Ghanaian […]

The Negro Baseball League is Founded

*This date marks the anniversary of the Negro Baseball League. In 1886, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists became the first Negro league.

Matthew Henson, Explorer born

*Matthew Henson was born on this date in 1866. He was an African American explorer and member of the 1909 expedition with American explorer Robert Peary that is credited with discovering the North Pole.

Kenesaw Landis, Baseball Administrator born

*Kenesaw Landis was born on this date in 1866.  He was a white-American federal judge and the first Commissioner of Baseball.    Kenesaw Mountain Landis was born in Millville, Ohio. His name was a spelling variation on the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the American Civil War, where his father was wounded in 1864. Landis […]

Sol White, Baseball Player, and Author born

*”Sol” White was born on this date in 1868. He was a Black professional baseball infielder, manager, writer, and executive, and one of the pioneers of the American Negro Leagues. Born in Bellaire, Ohio, King Solomon White’s early life is not well-documented. According to the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census, his family (parents and two […]

William Lewis, Athlete, and Scholar born

On this date, we remember, the birth of William H. Lewis, born in 1868. He was an African American lawyer and football player.

Born to former slaves in Berkley, Virginia, William Henry Lewis worked to pay for his education at Virginia Normal Institute (now Virginia State University). He later attended Amherst College in Massachusetts. Excelling as an orator and athlete, Lewis was one of the first Black men to play collegiate football, serving as team captain in 1890 and 1891. He met his future wife (Elizabeth Baker) at his graduation.

Frank Leland, Baseball Player, Coach, Manager, and Owner born

*The birth of Frank Leland is celebrated on this date in 1869. He was a Black baseball player, field manager, and club owner in the Negro Leagues. Frank C. Leland was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1886. He began his professional baseball career with the Washington Capital Cities in […]

Black History and American Professional Football, a story

*African American contributions in professional American football are many. We show a lengthy legacy directly reflecting United States society.

Willie Simms, Horse Jockey born

Willie Simms was born on this date in 1870. He was an African American horse jockey.

Born near Augusta, GA, Simms began racing in 1887, and was one of the most successful to use the short stirrup that gave the rider a crouching posture. En route to winning the United States riding title in 1893 and 1894, Simms won back-to-back Belmont Stakes. The following year, he raced in England where he became the first American jockey to win with an American horse in that country. In America, Simms won the 1896 Kentucky Derby in its first time as a one and a quarter mile race.