James Edgar Claxton (December 14, 1892 – March 3, 1970) was a Canadian-American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

, and the first black man to play organized white baseball in the twentieth century.

Early life and background

Jimmy Claxton was born on December 14, 1892, in Wellington, British Columbia, to American parents. Claxton's parents were 32-year-old William Edgar Claxton, a miner from Lynchburg, Virginia, and 18-year-old Emma Richards from Illinois. Claxton's mother had turned 18 just 24 days before the wedding, which was January 14, 1892. The Claxtons moved to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, when Jimmy was three months old. The Claxton family was of a

multiracial The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races (human categorization), races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity, ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used ...

background, including people of

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, Native American, French, Irish, and English ancestry. Jimmy and his siblings have been classified as white, black, and

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

by various

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-takers. Claxton's

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

draft registration card lists his race as

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

. The minister officiating the marriage of Claxton's parents noted "The bridegroom is a coloured man; the bride a white woman" on the marriage record, which laid the groundwork for difficulties for Jimmy Claxton later.

Baseball career

Claxton began playing baseball at age thirteen, as a catcher for the town team of Roslyn, Washington. He later moved to

. At age 18, he struck out eighteen players in a single game while pitching for a team from Chester, Washington. By 1916, Claxton had made his way to the

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, where he played for an all-black team. In Oakland, he came the attention of the management of the Oakland Oaks of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

. Claxton was introduced to the team owner by a part Native American friend as a fellow member of an

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

tribe. At the time, African Americans were segregated in professional baseball, but Native Americans were allowed. On May 28, 1916, Claxton broke the professional baseball color line when he played two games for the Oaks. Claxton pitched in two games of a doubleheader for a combined total of two and one third

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other tea ...

s. He allowed three runs, four hits, and four walks. The Zee-Nut candy company produced a baseball card for Claxton, making him the first African American baseball player to appear on a baseball card. Within a week, a friend of Claxton revealed that he had both African American and Native American

ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

s, and Claxton was promptly fired. In an interview with the ''

Contra Costa Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East ...

'' in 1964, Claxton explained that no reason was given for his dismissal, but he believed it was due to his race. Oaks manager Rowdy Elliott claimed that Claxton was released because of his performance. It was nearly thirty years before another black man played organized white baseball. After leaving the Oaks, Claxton played for Shasta Limited, an all-black

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

team based in northern California. While with the Shastas, he set a bush league record by striking out nineteen players in a single game. He won a state semi-professional championship while pitching with the Shastas. Claxton played for many different teams in the negro leagues, including the

Chicago Union Giants The Leland Giants, originally the Chicago Union Giants, were a Negro league baseball team that competed independently during the first decade of the 20th century. The team was formed via a merge of the Chicago Unions and the Chicago Columbia Gi ...

and the Cuban Stars. In 1932, he pitched for both Pollock's Cuban Stars and the Washington Pilots of the

East–West League The East–West League was an American Negro baseball league that operated during the period when professional baseball in the United States was segregated. Cum Posey organized the league in 1932, but it did not last the full year and folded in J ...

. He pitched his final game at age 63, during an old-timer's game in

. Claxton died on March 3, 1970, in Tacoma.

References

Sources

* ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

'' by

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

; New York: Alfred Knopf, 1994

Primary sources

1891 Canadian census

Marriage records
Claxton and Richards. BC Archives.

External links