When the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings joined the American Association, then considered along with the National League to be a major league, their roster included a twenty-seven year old catcher named Moses Fleetwood Walker. What was unusual about this player was that he was an African-American, one of a very few at that time not relegated to playing on all-black teams. Although his major league career only lasted one season and he is virtually unknown today, Walker, nevertheless, contributed to the long struggle to overcome the color barrier in baseball.
Fleetwood Walker's Early Life
Fleet Walker was born in 1856 in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, the third oldest son of Moses and Caroline Walker. His father, originally a cooper by trade, later trained to become a doctor and then a minister. Both parents placed an emphasis on education and in 1877 young Moses entered Oberlin College, then one of the few segregated colleges in the United States. He was joined there a few years later by his younger brother, Weldy Wilberforce Walker.
In 1881, the two brothers played on the school’s first varsity baseball team. After defeating Michigan in the final game that season, the Ann Arbor school, impressed with Fleet’s athletic skills, recruited him. In an era when transfer and eligibility rules were non-existent, he transferred and played catcher on the 1882 Michigan team before returning back to Oberlin the same season and playing for them in their last game and again in the 1883 season.
Walker's Professional Career
Immediately after leaving Oberlin, Walker turned professional, joining the Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern League where he caught sixty games and batted .251. The following season he accompanied his team to the American Association, becoming in effect the first black player in the majors. Later that year his brother, Weldy, was added briefly to the roster.
Fleet’s statistics for his one year in the AA were respectable if not overly impressive. He hit .263 and fielded .887 in forty-two games during an injury plagued season. In an era when protective padding and even gloves for a catcher were virtually unknown and pitchers were beginning to throw overhand at greater velocities, bumps, bruises, and even fractures were not uncommon. Walker played infrequently after July when a foul ball broke one of his ribs.
From all accounts, the black ball player was accepted and even respected for his intellect and charm by his white teammates and the fans in most cities. In fact, attendance usually increased when his team played on the road, such was the novelty of a “colored” person playing on a white team. Animosity may have been felt only in two southern towns. Walker was allegedly booed and hissed in Louisville, Kentucky, (although some accounts deny this) and a letter threatening violence in Richmond, Virginia, should Walker play was received by the Toledo manager.
Walker's Life after Baseball
Fleet Walker was released by Toledo after the 1884 season and spent the next several years moving from one minor league team to another before he retired after the 1889 season. Eventually, he moved with his wife and children back to Ohio where, in partnership with his brother, he became a hotelkeeper and later the owner of several movie theaters. He also claimed to have had several inventions patented.
During the early 1900s, he and Weldy became involved in civil rights and the struggle against segregation through the establishment of The Equator, a newspaper that was devoted to African-American problems. In 1908, he published a booklet called Our Home Colony presenting his view that American blacks and whites could never be fully integrated, either through acceptance or intermarriage. Instead, he argued, blacks needed to return to their African roots and establish nations like Liberia which was formed by ex-slaves.
Fleet Walker continued in his various activities until shortly before his death in Cleveland in 1924. Unlike Jackie Robinson twenty plus years later, Walker had never been part of a plan to integrate baseball and his contributions to the game, both as a player and pioneer, were minimal. Nevertheless, he should be remembered for having at least opened a door, no matter how briefly.
John K. Davis - John is a retired teacher/librarian and has also been doing freelance writing since the late 1970s. Over this period of time, he has had ...
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