Uncovering Another “Unknown” Black baseball player of the 1920’s.
One of my goals in retirement is to increase awareness of African American history, especially around sports. Throughout my life, history has always intrigued me, especially while traveling with my father on his trips to play ball. Driving through towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin, always wondering “why,” did people create a town in this place? Sometimes knowing that a river might be the reason, but still, always wondering. My imagination would always be in full curiosity!
Some people are asked, “if you could talk with anyone in history, who would that be?” To be honest, I don’t know, I imagine it could be many different individuals for different reasons. But for me, I always return to some of my fathers’ friends, and others that played sports and lived through the struggles and challenges they faced daily, because I’ve had to live some of those similar struggles, and it wasn’t easy!
Maybe that’s why this following story continues to intrigue me with hopes of finding out more, of course that may never happen, but I can always imagine.
Maybe this is a researcher’s dream or a random find, but that is what happened last year (2018) while researching information about writing an article on Jimmy Lee, (a Saint Paul legend) for the; Ramsey County History magazine1. If you read this article, I think that I have captured much of Jimmy Lee’s story, or maybe the essence of who he was and what he meant to many of us.
While attempting to find information that would confirm (according to Jim Griffin’s writings)2 that Jimmy Lee graduated from Mechanic Arts High School in Saint Paul. While reviewing MA year books from the ‘20’s at the George Latimer Central Library (downtown), I was looking through the 1921 year book3 and would be surprised at finding a photo of a Black player in a baseball uniform, and also box scores and a short recap of the season that would provide information that this player, Sam Stephens, was a star pitcher that had lead them to a City Championship (actually two consecutive).
1 Ramsey County History magazine, Winter 2019, Volume 53 - Number 4, https://publishing.rchs.com/publishing/magazine/ram- sey-county-history-magazine-volume-53-4-winter-2019/
2 HAND in HAND’S, Rondo Oral History Project Saint Paul, Minnesota, Deputy Chief, James Stafford Griffin
3 1921 Mechanic Arts Yearbook
I was completely shocked as this was at a time when baseball was segregated in Minnesota and you would be challenged to find another African American (Negro at the time), playing high school baseball during the ‘20’s, ‘30’s or even the ‘40’s with all respect to my father and his career at the same school in ’44, ’45 and ’46.
I looked at the photo in the yearbook and it looked somewhat familiar, so I took a photo with my phone, they don’t let you make copies of year books because of their being fragile as historical documents. I also took photos of the box scores, a sample included here in the story.
Still short of finding information about Jimmy Lee, I asked the woman at the reference desk, is there another way to research people that attended high school in Saint Paul. She shared that Minnesota History Center had school student card files that showed what classes they took. So, my next stop was the History Center. I found not only Jimmy Lee’s card but also Samuel Stephens.
Upon returning home, the photo was on my mind and I couldn’t stop thinking that I had seen this player before. My book (They Played for the Love of the Game, Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota), was on my desk and I looked at the player on the right, and low and behold, upon comparison of the photo, there was Samuel Stephens! Amazing, I had now identified another player in this 1923 team photo of the Uptown Sanitary Shop baseball team (this makes 7 players identified).
The cover of my book includes the far-right side of the team
photo and three players, they are L-R, Jimmy Lee, Louis House and now, Samuel Stephens. (SEE RIGHT)
1923 Uptown Sanitary Shop4
Player kneeling: Unknown
Front Row L-R: Unknown, Dennis Ware, George White, Unknown, Unknown, Jimmy Lee, Samuel Stephens Back Row L-R: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Bobby Marshall, John L. Davis, Louis House
In addition, to confirm my memory, I reviewed the roster that appears at the end Chapter 3, The Roaring Twenties, Creating Their Own League, page 675 and there is the name Stephens.
Again, wanting to confirm, I went back to my research files to review the information from the newspaper.
The Northwestern Bulletin in 1922 was a weekly newspaper, editor Roy Wilkins with a Sports column by Harry Davis.
1 This photo is from the Minnesota History Center Collection. The photo was originally donated to the history center by Roger Neal Sr., the photo was found in Dennis Ware’s belongings, and Roger was the executor of his Will. The photo was taken by Arthur Rhodes a local Black photographer. Identification story is included in Chapter 3, The Roaring Twenties, Creating Their Own League, page 53, They Played for the Love of the Game, Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota.
2 This reference has two sources, one of the original score pages from the Score Book provided by Lyle Gerhardt and Northwestern Bulletin Newspaper, May 12, 1923.
In my file for the Northwestern Bulletin newspapers, I would find an additional article in Harry Davis’s Sports column and have included one from Hamline University’s Oracle newspaper.
Stephens Rounding into Form for “Piper” Nine6
“Sam Stephens, the former star twirler of Mechanic Arts High, who pitched the school to championships for two consecutive years, is fast rounding into shape for the varsity nine of Hamline University. A berth on the nine is almost certainty and Sam will be expected to hold up his previous record as a twirler.”
Piper “Nine” Wins Game from St. John’s7
“Hamline University baseball team opened their conference season Wednesday with a 7 to 4 victory over the strong St. John’s team at Collegeville, Minn. Sam Stephens, former Mechanic Arts star pitcher, hurled the game for the Pipers, while Fox pitched for the losers. Stephens held the Johnnies hitless for seven innings but in the eighth frame they broke loose and made a total of seven hits before the last
man was out. Hamline made twelve hits and received three passes during the game while Stephens issued no passes in nine innings.”
In my original research for my exhibit and book, I remembered coming across these two articles but at the time didn’t realize that Stephens was an African American player but now this makes sense of why he appeared in article and was mentioned by Harry Davis, also an outstanding athlete.
Knowing the stories (regarding Black Baseball & Sports), from many sources over the years, I can only imagine what Sam had to go through each game that he pitched, not only in high school but now also in college. For most of us, try to imagine the negative comments, name calling, etc. before, during and after each game! To be even allowed to be on the team rosters of a high school and college during this era of segregated baseball, you know that Sam had to be
an outstanding pitcher and player. In fact, in looking at the box scores in high school he could also hit and played the outfield.
About two weeks later, I was further intrigued by this story, drove by his home (address) listed while in high school at 1031 Park Avenue, which is a block east of Rice street in Saint Paul. Another interesting piece for me is that the location of his home was one block from Washington High School’s baseball field at Rice and Lawson. Interesting because you could ask, “why
didn’t he attend Washington High School,” as opposed to walking about a mile and a half to Mechanic Arts
at Central Avenue and Robert Street (97 East Central Avenue), one block from the State Capital.
The answer, after further research is that Washington High School opened its doors on February 1, 1926, to a student body of 300, 8th and 9th graders.8
I decided to pursue Sam’s attendance at Hamline University and called and talked with one of their archivists, this woman Candy was able to share that she could find that Sam received a Varsity letter in 19249 but couldn’t find anything else. She suggested that I come to the library and review their school newspaper, The Hamline Oracle,” to maybe find additional information.
On Friday, August 16 I drove to Hamline University to research in their Bush Memorial library. I was pleasantly surprised to find several written pieces of information about Sam’s pitching career in 1922 and 1923, including a pitching win against the Minnesota Gophers baseball team.
“Red and Gray win from Minnesota 9-4,” which also included that Sam Stephens was the winning pitcher.10
Another indication for me that at this level of College sports, segregation was surely at hand at the University of Minnesota. “They had an unwritten rule in the Big Ten until 1944-45 when it was broken by the University of Iowa”, according to Jim Griffin in an interview.11 While there were a couple of Black
athletes that played, participation by Black athletes at the U was minimal. My father would share this same information with me when I was a teenager.
1 Northwestern Bulleting Newspaper, April 1, 1922, page 4, Column 2
2 Hamline University student newspaper, The Oracle, May 6, 1922, page 4,
3 Will find reference later
4 The Liner: file:///C:/Users/Frank%20White/Documents/SamuelStephens/Liner_1924_p137.pdf
5 The Oracle was the headline on April 20, 1923,
6 HAND to HAND’S, Rondo Oral History Project Saint Paul, Minnesota, Deputy Chief James Stafford Griffin
Feeling more satisfied by this random discovery of Samuel Stephens and more information about his pitching career, I returned home.
You know how things get stuck in your mind, I became more intrigued by this story and was trying to figure out how I could pursue more information, probably at another time.
I was sitting in our three-season room and reading information as I preparing for an upcoming meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society’s State Review Board, lots of information to read before our next meeting on Tuesday, August 20th. Well, after doing some reading, I couldn’t get Samuel Stephens out of my mind. My research file for the Northwestern Bulletin was only a couple feet away and I decided to look at the information again to see if I could find anything new.
Included in the file was a copy of the front page of the Minneapolis Spokesman newspaper. While reviewing the page, I was reminded of why I made a copy of this page, it was the headline and photo, “They Helped Halt Showing of Ku Klux Film,’ which was a story of the showing of the film, “A Birth of a Nation.”12 It showed protestors and their names. When researching information about Black Baseball, I was often interested in articles and stories of the time.
Now looking at this front page, I see another headline, smaller but still a lead on front page. “Ben Stephens St. Paul Pioneer dies in Florida.13 I remember that Samuel Stephens father’s name was Ben, so I read the story…WOW!
Contained in the story is; “Born ins Georgia, Mr. Stephens had been a resident of St. Paul for about forty years, coming here as a stone cutter to work on the State Capitol when it was being built… Survivors include two sons, Lloyd and Sam Stephens.
Pharmacists in the city of Chicago, and one daughter, Mrs. Beulah Stephens-Shute, home economics teacher, all three of whom graduated from the University of Minnesota.”
Okay, this is unreal, while I had this copy of the newspaper for some time, I wasn’t aware of the Stephens family and/or the connection. Now, I’m further interested because when I talked with the archivist at Hamline, she mentioned that she
couldn’t find that he (Samuel) had graduated from Hamline, now it made sense but was another piece to investigate.
I now returned to the Minnesota Historical Society to find out if I could place Samuel Stephens at the U of M. I shared my story with one of the staff in the reference library about this random find, she mentioned, “this was meant to be,” and I concur.
They provided me with three-year books, 1925, ’26 and ’27 and commencement books from 1925 – 40. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find Samuel Stephens in any of the sources. Disappointed for sure but decided to call the University of Minnesota for more help. I was given an email address to share my question.14
On August 21, I received an email with information that Samuel Stephens had graduated with a BS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1926. A day later they sent me a copy of his transcript indicating that he was granted his degree on June 14, 1926.
Amazing, simply amazing!
Well, I still have some questions, could I find him in Chicago and more importantly because he was a
very good baseball player, did he continue to play in Chicago, knowing that they had several outstanding all Black Baseball teams in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s.
In fact, two of those teams were members of theoriginal Negro National League that was started in1920 by Rube Foster on February 13, 1920 at theYMCAinKansasCity,Missouri.Rubewastheownerand manager of the Chicago American Giants teamfromChicago.
Continuing the story of Samuel Stephens, whether by chance or “it was meant to be,” I’m looking forward to the next steps of researching Chicago Black newspaper to see if Samuel continued his baseball career in Chicago or retired as he took on the next chapter of his life, as a pharmacist, business owner and family man.
Unlocking some of the closed doors of history has been very exciting for me, it helps in my attempts at understanding before my time and seeing a piece of what individuals did, how they persevered and became successful or filled some of their goals.
So, one of my unanswered questions, did he continue to play baseball? Well, that answer is for another day and maybe, just maybe I will be able to find the answer!
15 www.baseballhall.org, Baseball Hall of Fame
Samuel R. Stephens
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Here is some additional research information I received from Christine Boulware, Historic Preservation Specialist from St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, who I consider a friend that has been great in helping with suggestions on research and actually providing some results, here are those results related to Samuel Stephens in Chicago;
• He was born on January 14, 1901 in Saint Paul, Minnesota
• He died on July 6, 1998 in Chicago (60653).
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• In 1920, he lived with his family at 1031 Park Ave. in St. Paul
• Father: Benjamin A Stephens – age 47, born in Georgia
• Mother: Azzie (Aggie?) Stephens – age 46, born in Georgia
• Older Brother: James Lloyd Stephens – age 23, born in Georgia
• Samuel R Stephens – age 18, born in Minnesota (he was a bell hop at this time)
• Younger Sister: Beulah V. Stephens – age 15, born in Minnesota
• He worked for the Northern Pacific Railway Co. as a waiter in the Dining Car Dept. until August 31, 1927.
1930 -------------------------------------------------------------------
• In 1930, he is living in Chicago at 656 East 15th Place in Chicago.
• He lives there with his wife, Alvai, daughter Jeanne and son Samuel Jr.
• He is working as a pharmacist in his own store.
1940 -------------------------------------------------------------------
• In 1940, he is living in Chicago with his family – the census also notes that is the inferred residence for 1935
• 4409 Vincennes Avenue
• He is a case worker for social services
• His wife’s name is Alvai and she was born in Louisiana
• They have a six-year-old daughter named Jeanne born in Minnesota (1934?)
• A 5-year-old son named Samuel Jr. born in Illinois (1935?)
• A 1-year old son named William born in Illinois (1939?)
• In 1990, he is living at 503 E 61st Street Chicago, IL 60637-2406
• In 1993-1995, he is living at 435 E 42nd Place, Chicago, IL 60653-2915
Source Citation
Year: 1910; Census Place: St Paul Ward 9, Ramsey, Minnesota; Roll: T624_718; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0136; FHL microfilm: 1374731
Source Information
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006
Source Citation
Year: 1920; Census Place: St Paul Ward 9, Ramsey, Minnesota; Roll: T625_854; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 108
Source Information
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Source Citation
Year: 1930; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0142; FHL microfilm: 2340155
Source Information
Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
Source Citation
Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00925; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 103-130
Source Information
Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Minnesota, Births and Christenings Index, 1840-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Minnesota, Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data:
•Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota State Population Census Schedules, 1865-1905. St. Paul, MN, USA: Minnesota Historical Society, 1977. Microfilm. Reels 1-47 and 107-164.
•Minnesota. Minnesota Territorial Census Schedules, 1849-1855. St. Paul, MN, USA: Minnesota Historical Society, 2000. Microfilm.
•Minnesota. Minnesota 1857 Territorial Census. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN, USA.
Citation Information
Source Information
Title
U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Author
Ancestry.com
Publisher
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.
Publisher Date
2015
Publisher Location
Provo, UT, USA
Repository Information
Name
Ancestry.com
Citation Information
Detail
Number: 343-12-6806; Issue State: Illinois; Issue Date: Before 1951
Source Information
Title
U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
Author
Ancestry.com
Publisher
Ancestry.com Operations Inc
Publisher Date
2014
Publisher Location
Provo, UT, USA
Repository Information
Name
Ancestry.com