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Weldy Wilberforce Walker (July 27, 1860 – November 23, 1937), sometimes known as Welday Walker and W. W. Walker, was an American baseball player. In 1884, he became the second African American to play Major League Baseball. Walker played college baseball at Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. In July 1884, he joined the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association which was then part of Major League Baseball. His brother Moses Fleetwood Walker, commonly known as Fleetwood (or "Fleet") Walker, was the first African American to play Major League Baseball, making his debut two months before Weldy. In 1887, as racial segregation took hold in professional baseball, Weldy joined the Pittsburgh Keystones of the short-lived National Colored Base Ball League. His March 1888 open letter to ''The Sporting Life'' protesting the racial segregation of baseball has been described as "perhaps the most passionate cry for justice ever voiced by a Negro athlete."〔 After retiring from baseball, Walker operated restaurants and a hotel in eastern Ohio. In 1897, he served on the Executive Committee of the Negro Protective Party, a newly formed political party established in Ohio in protest of the failure of the Republican governor to investigate the lynching of an African American in June 1897 at Urbana, Ohio. In the 1900s, Weldy and his brother Fleetwood became active in the Back-to-Africa movement and promoted emigration to Liberia. The brothers also established and edited ''The Equator'', a black issues newspaper. ==Early years== Walker was born in 1860 in Steubenville, Ohio, an industrial city in the eastern part of the state with a reputation for racial tolerance. Weldy's name was a combination of the biblical word for wealthy ("weldy") and the surname of English abolitionist William Wilberforce. His parents, Moses W. Walker and Caroline (O'Hara) Walker, moved to Steubenville from Mount Pleasant, Ohio.〔 His father was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a physician, and a leader in Steubenville's African-American community.〔Zang 1998, p. 16.〕〔 In June 1870, at the time of the 1870 United States Census, the Walker family was living in Steubenville's First Ward. Walker's father was identified as a minister who had been born in Virginia. The couple had four children listed in the Census: William (age 25), Mary (age 21), Sarah (age 19), Moses F. (age 11) and Weldy W. (age 9).〔Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census (on-line ). Census Place: Steubenville Ward 1, Jefferson, Ohio; Roll: M593_1228; Page: 30B; Image: 65; Family History Library Film: 552727.〕 In June 1880, at the time of the 1880 United States Census, the family was still living in Steubenville and consisted of Moses (age 59, clergyman), Caroline (age 57), William (age 35, teamster), Sarah (age 22), Moses (age 21, at school), Weldan (age 19, at school), and Mary Alexander (age 13, adopted).〔Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census (on-line ). Census Place: Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio; Roll: 1037; Family History Film: 1255037; Page: 452D; Enumeration District: 110; Image: 0495.〕 Weldy attended Steubenville's integrated public high school in the 1870s.〔Zang 1998, p. 15.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Weldy Walker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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