Read the story of Moses Fleetwood Walker

Benjamin Hill of MiLB.com has this article that is well worth the read. Here's the start:

Even if Moses Fleetwood Walker had never played professional baseball, his life story would have been an exceedingly interesting one.

Walker was a well-educated and restless Renaissance man who logged time as an inventor, entrepreneur, lecturer and newspaper publisher (among many other professional and leisurely diversions). He also suffered from alcoholism, which played a role in several run-ins with the law. Most spectacularly, he was charged with second-degree murder in 1891 for his role in a violent incident outside a bar in Syracuse, N.Y.

What makes the story notable?

The details of Walker's dramatic and often contradictory life take on added meaning when one factors his race into the equation. As a mulatto who came of age in late-19th century America (and who was born before the advent of the Civil War), Walker inevitably was defined by the color of his skin first and his accomplishments second.

So it remains today. For Walker, to the extent he is remembered at all, is usually referred to simply as "the first black player in the history of the Major Leagues." He achieved this distinction when he spent the 1884 season as a catcher with the American Association's Toledo Blue Stockings, some six decades before Jackie Robinson's historic debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Now go read the rest.