Quote:
Originally Posted by obcbobd
Did not Jimmy Claxton only play a few games with the Oakland Oaks, under the context of being an Indian? He was found out, booted from the team, and to my knowledge no African American played in organized professional until Jackie. Its certainly an interesting piece of trivia, but does not have the cultural implications of what Jackie did. It really did not advance the cause of racial equality.
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Excerpt from forthcoming biography,
Darkhorse; the Jimmy Claxton Story by Ty Phelan:
"Not only physically but philosophically, Claxton was in a remote place from the mainstream. Born and raised in backwater Pacific Northwest coal mining towns with a resentment of segregation so great he sacrificed a potentially brilliant career to prove the point. Though he integrated some of the largest port cities on the West Coast, his story is not an urban but a rural black history. He preferred to be in the eye of many small town grass roots movements; all with the seemingly delusional cause of inclusion in every professional trade by any means necessary.
His career was unlike many of his contemporaries of similar ability. He took the road less traveled; chose not to play in the Negro Leagues for a great deal of his career, and instead integrated semi-professional baseball on the West Coast for decades. Claxton was stubborn beyond measure, and every mound was a fragile soapbox.
The exhaustive lists of accomplishments for Claxton include; the first black man featured on an American baseball card. One of the first to integrate minor league and semi-professional teams in Seattle (1924), Tacoma (1924), Portland (1915), Oakland (1916), Reno (1933), and to manage white semi-professional baseball clubs in Washington (1926-27) and Nevada (1933-38) prior to World War II. He was also a social activist; assuredly the first African American to integrate the United Mine Workers, International Longshoremen, and to be a Deputy Game Warden in the country. He did not do these things to make history; he just wanted to play baseball.
His career spanned the coal and atomic age; two World Wars, a pandemic, prohibition, the Great Depression, the introduction of the pitching mound, “dead ball/live ball” eras, and most importantly the segregation and integration of professional baseball. Less than a handful of ballplayers can make that claim at any level. How did this terrific semi-pro pitcher integrate the game for nearly 40 years and subsequently go unrecognized for another 60? He did not shout from rooftops, but whispered in ears his intentions to bring equality to the game he loved."
The book will be ready for sale by years end (sorry for the shameless self-promotional plug). This may give you an idea that his career was not about a short outing in Oakland, or reducible to an anomalous baseball card. He claimed to be "Indian", because he WAS fractionally Native American his mother was from Old Shawneetown, Illinois. Many, many other stories such as his; John Golden, Ike Ward, Ernest Tanner, Eddie Jackson, Carlisle Perry, Tom Mooney, Charley Allen, Smiley Clayton, Foy Scott, and Marion Motley. All African American ballplayers and former teammates of Claxton on predominantly white baseball teams from 1919-1940.