LaFrieda Smith

Moses Fleetwood Walker

October 7, 1856-May 11, 1924

Pictured above: Moses is sitting grouped with his (minor league) Oberlin College Team in 1880’s.

Pictured above: Walker is posing with the (AA) Toledo Blue Stockings of 1884.  He joined the team on May 1, 1884 and played 42 games, averaged .263, scored 23 runs until he injured his ribs and he was let go in September 22, 1884. On August 23, 1889, Walker was also the last Negro to play in the International league until Jackie Robinson.

Pictured above: left to right- Weldy Walker and his brother Moses Walker.  Both played for Toledo Blue Stockings. Him and his brother owned the Union Hotel in Steubenville Ohio and managed an Opera House in Ohio.

Pictured above: Moses Walker was married to Arbella Taylor after college and had one child.  She later died of cancer at 32 years old on June 12, 1895.  Three years later, he got remarried to a Ednah Jane Mason the same year he was sentenced for mail robbery and tragically she died May 26, 1920.  He died on May 11, 1924 from lobar pneumonia in Cleveland, Ohio and buried next to his first wife in Union Cemetery-Beatty Park also buried there is his younger brother Weldy Walker.

Setting the record straight……

Pictured above: William Edward White was discovered as the first African-American to play for the Stockings in 1879 but because he lived his life as a white man he never received credit for being the first so Moses Fleetwood Walker took the plate in 1884 when he joined the (AA) in 1884.  During his reign, his brother Weldy Walker followed him as third African-American to play while Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. 

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