Moses Fleetwood Walker

NAME: Moses Fleetwood Walker

BORN: October 1857

COMMUNITY AFFILIATIONS:

born, Mount Pleasant, Ohio (Jefferson County)

EDUCATION:

graduated, Oberlin College, 1881

OCCUPATION: athlete, baseball player

DIED: May 11, 1924, Cleveland, Ohio

FAST FACTS:

Moses Walker and his brother, Weldy, helped start the Oberlin College baseball team. Oberlin was on the first colleges to integrate.

Moses went on to study law at the University of Michigan, but soon left to play professional baseball for the Toledo Mudhens. His primary postion was catcher. In 1883, this made him the first African American to ever play professional baseball.

Unfortunately, the team ultimately released him due to rules in other areas of the country prohibiting "colored" players.

Moses stayed in baseball for some years, with stops in Cleveland, Waterbury, Newark (NJ), Syracuse, and Terre Haute.

He retired from baseball in 1891, while with Oconto, Wisconsin in the Western League.

He wrote several books in his later years, including Our Home Colony," a sociological study on the condition of African Americans.