June 21, 1879: MLB's 1st Black Player

June 21, 1879: For the 1st time, a black man plays in Major League Baseball. This was 40 years before the birth of Jackie Robinson, and 5 years before the arrival of Moses and Weldy Walker. What's more, it seems that nobody knew it at the time -- except for the player himself.

William Edward "Bill" White plays 1st base for the Providence Grays. He went 1-for-4 and scored a run, and the Grays beat the Cleveland Blues, 5-3 at the Messer Street Grounds in Providence, Rhode Island.

Joe Start was the Grays' regular 1st baseman, and one of the best all-around players of that era. He was injured on that occasion, and White played in his place.

Little is known about White, including his exact birthdate: He appears to have been born sometime in October 1860, right before the American Civil War, in Milner, Georgia, the son of a white planation owner and a black slave -- which, if true, would make him the only former slave to play in MLB.

Having a white father and, figuratively and literally, a White name, Bill White chose to "pass as white," something the Walker brothers could not do. As a result, there is no recorded objection to his having played: It's possible that no one on either team knew he was black.

Furthermore, it took a lot of searching to determine that White was the 1st black major leaguer: For a long time, it was thought that Moses Walker was. But in 2007, researcher Pete Morris found White and determined his heritage. But since he passed as white, many baseball historians still consider Walker the first black player, because he was the first to, as we would say now, identify as black.

White died on March 29, 1937, in Chicago. He was 76. Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers 10 years and 17 days later.

This Bill White appears to be no relation to the Bill White who would later be a star 1st baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, become the 1st black broadcaster for a major league team, and become the 1st black President of a major league.

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June 21, 1879 was a Saturday. There were 2 other games played in the National League that day. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Stockings, 15-13 at the South End Grounds in Boston. These Reds folded at the end of the season, and the current team with the name began play in the American Association in 1882. The Red Stockings are the forerunners of the team now known as the Atlanta Braves.

And the Chicago White Stockings beat the Syracuse Stars, 5-3 at Newell Park in Syracuse, New York. The Stars folded after the season, while the White Stockings became known as the Chicago Cubs in 1903.