First MLB Card To Depict An African-American Player?

[MattyC]

Which baseball card has the distinction of being the first mainstream MLB card to depict a black player? Is it both the Leaf Paige and Robinson rookies from the "48" set? Or are the Jackie bread cards given this distinction. Thx.

[darwinbulldog]

I'd say the D305 Jackie Robinson. The D302 set appears to have been released over a few years. See here:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=171169

And "1948" Leaf is known to be a 1949 issue. Not that 1948 would have cut it anyway. D302, at least with the rounded corners, is from 1947. Is it mainstream? I'd say so.

[MattyC]

Will check that out, thx!

I'd put "48" in quotes because of it really being 49.

[Michael B]

Pardon my slight ignorance as I am not a card collector, but isn't Moses "Fleetwood" Walker depicted on one of those tobacco card sized cards from the teens that are real photos of teams? I am not sure, but I thought one was used in an article I read on him many years ago.

I just checked his info and saw that he played in the 1880's so he could not have been on one of those cards. It was probably a University of Michigan photo or a Toledo American Association photo that depicts him.

[CharleyBrown]

Would Jimmy Claxtons zeenut count as mainstream?

I have to go back to my research, but there are 4 D302s that we can likely attribute to 1947.

[MattyC]

I'd suppose each collector's definition of mainstream may differ. My own initial inquiry was in reference to a card that is part of a nationally distributed, complete, MLB set-- one that included the MLB players of that year, and was available in traditional packs for kids. For example, the "48" Leaf set.

Others may feel nationally distributed bakery cards are sufficiently mainstream. I'm curious to know the answer for each definition of mainstream though. It's all interesting to me.

[brewing]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I'd suppose each collector's definition of mainstream may differ. My own initial inquiry was in reference to a card that is part of a nationally distributed, complete, MLB set-- one that included the MLB players of that year, and was available in traditional packs for kids. For example, the "48" Leaf set.



Others may feel nationally distributed bakery cards are sufficiently mainstream. I'm curious to know the answer for each definition of mainstream though. It's all interesting to me.

I agree with your definition. But I don't believe the Leaf card was released before the Bowman card in 1949.



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[oldjudge]

Although not the question posed by the OP, the first black athlete to appear on a card was race walker (Pedestrian) Frank Hart in the 1880 Between the Acts set. This is a truly rare and significant card. The last black athlete to play Major League Baseball, prior to Jackie Robinson, was Moses Fleetwood Walker. His image is available in a Syracuse Stars cabinet and a few team photographs, all of which are very scarce.

[Exhibitman]

There aren't a whole lot of 19th century and early 20th century cards for collectors of athletes of African origins. Boxing probably offers the most. Afro-Canadian George Godfrey appeared in N174:



Also appearing was Afro-Australian Peter Jackson, who also had several cards in the Newsboy series. Godfrey and Jackson were joined by Afro-Caribbean Barbados Joe Walcott and Afro-Canadian George Dixon in the N310 Mayo issue. N266 Red Cross has Godfrey, Jackson and Dixon. N332 S.F. Hess has Godfrey and Jackson. N269 Red Cross has African-American boxer Harry Woodson. I suppose Woodson would be the first African-American boxer with a card.

[michael3322]

I just wanted to contribute a scan of the rare Frank Hart card that was mentioned earlier.