| Introduction |
| Frank Armstrong |
| Keokuk Baseball Team |
| Frederick "Duke" Slater |
| Jack Trice |
| Ozzie Simmons |
| Johnny Bright |
| Dolph Pulliam |
| Simon Roberts |
| Ruth Collins |
| Sol Butler |
 |
| Baseball was the most popular sport in the United
States in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. While it was very
rare for African Americans to play on an integrated baseball teams,
it did occasionally happen, generally before racial attitudes hardened
about 1910.
Frank Armstrong was the first African American to graduate from Cornell College in Mount Vernon. He was captain of the baseball team his final year at Cornell. At commencement, he introduced the speaker, Booker T. Washington, and so impressed Washington that he hired Armstrong to be his assistant. Armstrong went on to become a physician in Chicago. Armstrong as a Cornell College student, 1900 ~Courtesy of Cole
Library, Cornell College |