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Posted By: gregor197

Claxton is not considered the first African American major leaguer, simply because the Pacific Coast League was not a major league in 1916!

In terms of cards of pre-war black players, this one got a lot of press around here recently:


(1887 Syracuse Stars, Bob Higgins - middle row, bottom)

As did the 1887 picture of Frank Grant and the Buffalo Bisons.

There are several other extant photos of integrated professional minor league teams from the late 19th century, although they are not really in card form.

Here is the 1885 Keokuk Iowa team with Bud Fowler.

There are also photos of the 1883 Toledo team with Fleet Walker, and the 1888 Syracuse team with Walker and Higgins and a few other pictures here and there.

There are dozens of pictures of pre-war integrated college baseball teams.

Here is the 1901 University of Wisconsin team [It's hard to tell from the pictures but Julian Ware (sitting in front of the guy with the bowtie) and Adelbert Matthews (sitting in front of Ware) were African American.]

Here is the 1904 Ohio Wesleyan team with Charles Thomas (back row, middle). [And a young Branch Rickey as coach!]

Here is the 1904 Harvard Baseball team with William Clarence Matthews.

There are numerous others, like Paul Robeson who played baseball at Rutgers and Cum Posey who played baseball at Duquesne....