Athletes - William Edward White

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	Athletes - William Edward White

William Edward White (1860-?) played as a substitute in one baseball game for the Providence Grays, on June 21, 1879. Recent work by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) suggests that he may have been the first African-American to play major league baseball, predating the longer career of Moses Fleetwood Walker by five years.

Very little is known about White, who was called into the game to replace the starting first baseman, Joe Start, after the latter was injured. White was a student of Brown University, who 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 now-Hall of Famer "Orator Jim" O'Rourke.

Research conducted in 2003 by SABR has suggested that the William Edward White who took the field that day was the son of a plantation owner from Milner, Georgia, Andrew Jackson White, and his black slave, Hannah. University records give Milner as the student's birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 census was a 9-year-old boy living with his parents; A.J. and Hannah White had married and were living with three children, among them a William. Cited as further evidence for this William White being the Brown student who played for the Grays is A.J. White's 1877 will, which stipulates that his son be educated in the North.

According to 1900 and 1910 census records, White (the former Brown student and ballplayer) moved to Chicago and became a bookkeeper. He is listed there as having been born in Rhode Island 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."

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