Jimmy Claxton

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Jimmy Claxton (born December 14, 1892 in Wellington, British Columbia, Canada; died March 3, 1970 in Tacoma, Washington [1]) was a black baseball pitcher.

On May 28, 1916, Claxton temporarily broke the professional baseball color line when he played one game for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. Claxton was introduced to the team owner by a part-Indian friend as a fellow member of an Oklahoma tribe. A candy company--the Zeenut candy company--quickly produced a baseball card for Claxton. Within a week, a friend of Claxton revealed that he had both African American and Native American ancestors, and was promptly fired. It would be nearly thirty more years before another black man played organized white baseball.


Contents

[edit] Source

Baseball by Ken Burns; New York: Alfred Knopf, 1994

[edit] References

  1. ^ Biography of Claxton

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[edit] External links