List of first black Major League Baseball players by team

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Below is a list of the first black players in Major League Baseball by team in chronological order, since the abolition of the Baseball color line. During the 1880s, Moses Fleetwood Walker, a black man, had played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (his brother Welday Walker also played a few games with the club), and it was essentially against Fleetwood Walker that the line was originally drawn. African-Americans had been excluded from major league baseball since 1884, and from all of professional baseball since 1889.

Key

Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

List

  • Only includes players post-1946; for players from pre-color line baseball see Baseball color line#Origins.
  • Teams are listed by franchise; i.e., teams that relocated to a new city after already breaking the color line are not listed a second time.
  • Expansion teams that joined the National and American Leagues after 1961 have been integrated from their first game and are not listed.
Player Team Date[1]
Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers, NL April 15, 1947
Larry Doby Cleveland Indians, AL July 5, 1947
Hank Thompson St. Louis Browns, AL July 17, 1947
Monte Irvin New York Giants, NL July 8, 1949
Hank Thompson New York Giants, NL July 8, 1949
Sam Jethroe Boston Braves, NL April 18, 1950
Minnie Miñoso Chicago White Sox, AL May 1, 1951
Bob Trice Philadelphia Athletics, AL September 13, 1953
Ernie Banks Chicago Cubs, NL September 17, 1953
Curt Roberts* Pittsburgh Pirates, NL April 13, 1954
Tom Alston St. Louis Cardinals, NL April 13, 1954
Nino Escalera Cincinnati Reds, NL April 17, 1954
Chuck Harmon[2] Cincinnati Reds, NL April 17, 1954
Carlos Paula Washington Senators, AL September 6, 1954
Elston Howard New York Yankees, AL April 14, 1955
John Kennedy Philadelphia Phillies, NL April 22, 1957
Ozzie Virgil, Sr.[3] Detroit Tigers, AL June 6, 1958
Pumpsie Green Boston Red Sox, AL July 21, 1959

* Major League Baseball recognizes Curt Roberts as the Pirates' first black player, however Carlos Bernier of Puerto Rico, also a black man, debuted on April 22, 1953.[4]

See also

References