William Edward White (October 1860 – March 29, 1937) was a 19th-century American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. He played as a substitute in one professional baseball game for the

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National Leagu ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

, on June 21, 1879. Work by the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

(SABR) suggests that he may have been the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to play major league baseball, predating the longer careers of

Moses Fleetwood Walker Moses Fleetwood Walker (October 7, 1856 – May 11, 1924) was an American professional baseball catcher who, historically, was credited with being the first black man to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, an ...

and his brother

Weldy Walker Weldy Wilberforce Walker (July 27, 1860 – November 23, 1937), sometimes known as Welday Walker and W. W. Walker, was an American baseball player. In 1884, he became the third African American to play Major League Baseball. Walker played ...

by five years, and

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

by 68 years. The 1879 Brown University Baseball Team

Very little is known about White, who replaced the regular first baseman,

Joe Start Joseph Start (October 14, 1842 – March 27, 1927), nicknamed "Old Reliable", was one of the most durable regulars of baseball's earliest era, and one of the top first basemen of his time. He began his playing career in 1859, before the forma ...

, after the latter was injured. White was a student at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and played for the college's team. He went 1-for-4 and scored a run as Providence won 5–3. It is unknown why White did not play for the Grays again. He was replaced in the next game by future

Hall of Famer A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

"Orator Jim" O'Rourke. SABR's research indicates that the William Edward White who took the field that day was the son of a plantation owner from

Milner, Georgia Milner is a city in Lamar County, Georgia, United States. The population was 610 at the 2010 census, up from 522 at the 2000 census. Milner is part of the official Atlanta 29 County Metropolitan Statistical Area - MSA. History The community fou ...

, Andrew Jackson White, and a black woman enslaved by White, Hannah. University records give Milner as the student's birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 census was a nine-year-old

mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...

boy who was one of three children living with his mother Hannah. All three of these children are named in A.J. White's 1877 will, which described them as the children of his servant Hannah White and stipulated that they be educated in the North. If the research by SABR is correct, then William White was not only the first black player in the major leagues, but may also have been the only former slave. Unlike the Walker brothers, White passed, and self-identified in multiple Census records, as white and did not face the virulent racism prevalent in the late 19th century. According to 1900 and 1910 census records, White moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and became a bookkeeper. He is listed there as having been born in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

and being white. The 1920 census, however, indicates that there was then a 60-year-old William E. White living in Chicago, whose parents were born in Georgia, and whose race was listed as "black". It is not certain that this is the same man.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, William Edward 1860 births 1937 deaths 19th-century baseball players African-American baseball players Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Brown Bears baseball players Major League Baseball first basemen People from Lamar County, Georgia Providence Grays players Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area Burials in Illinois