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James Edgar Claxton (December 14, 1892 - March 3, 1970) was a Canadian-American baseball pitcher, and the first black man to play organized white baseball in the twentieth century. Early life and background
- Early Years
- Baseball Career
- Baseball Card
- Personal Life
Jimmy Claxton was born in Wellington, British Columbia. Claxton’s father, William Edgar Claxton, was a coal minerfrom Lynchburg, Virginia, who had relocated to BC for work. He met Emma Richards, a farmer’s daughter from Illinois, who had moved to Washington State. The two were married on 14 January 1892. The reverend overseeing the ceremony wrote i...
By his late teens and early 20s, Jimmy Claxton was one of the most in-demand left-handed pitchers in the Pacific Northwest. Between 1910 and 1916, he pitched for barnstorming and semi-professional teams, including the all-Black Hubbard Giants in 1914 and again in 1915, when they were called the Portland Giants. When he was pitching for the Oak Leaf...
Jimmy Claxton’s five-day tenure with the Oakland Oaks happened to coincide with the visit of the photographer hired by the Collins-McCarthy Candy Company to snap pictures for a series of baseball cards. This made him the first African American player on an American baseball card. Today, that series of cards is known as the 1916 Zee-Nuts set. Claxto...
After his barnstorming days, Jimmy Claxton settled in Tacoma, Washington, and worked as a stevedore. He married Juanita Ury on 25 June 1917 in Tacoma. They had a son, Edward James. Edward served in the US Merchant Marine in the Second World Warbefore becoming a stevedore in Tacoma, like his father. Claxton died on 3 March 1970 and is buried in the ...
Jan 8, 2012 · James Edgar Claxton, known all his life as Jimmy, or Jimmie, was born on December 14, 1892, at Wellington, a British Columbia mining town at the northern terminus of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island. Though he was born in Canada, both his parents were American.
Apr 13, 2013 · Jimmy Claxton (back row, fourth from left) pitched for the Casino Tavern team of the Western Washington League in 1941. Credit: Marc H. Blau Collection. On a fine May morning in 1916, a nervous...
Mar 1, 2024 · In 1923, across the water from Everett, a black Canadian-American pitcher named Jimmy Claxton took the mound for the Mukilteo Lighthouse Keepers baseball team. It would be 24 years before Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier in professional baseball.
Feb 7, 2022 · Jimmy Claxton. Born December 14, 1892 in Wellington, B.C., Claxton was of multi-ethnic heritage, including African Canadian. He played for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in 1916, posing as a Native American before his heritage became public, at which point he was released.
Jun 9, 2016 · The son of a black man and a white woman, Claxton’s integration of white baseball was brief, and the pitcher faded quickly into obscurity. Today only a few baseball historians and fans have heard of him.
