William Johnson, the boy who would become known as Judy, was born in Snow Hill,
Maryland, on October 26, 1899. When he was five years old his family moved to
Wilmington, where his father took a job as a shipbuilder during the day and served as the
athletic director at the Negro Settlement House in his free time. Although his
father wanted him to become a boxer, Johnson loved baseball. Whenever he was not at
the Frederick Douglass School, he played baseball on the field at Second and DuPont
streets
near his home on the west side of town.
Unlike many African-American children growing up in the early 1900s,
Johnson was lucky
because on the ball fields in Wilmington black and white children played
together. He could not understand why his father did not think he could play
professional ball, because in his experience talent was what mattered, not skin color.
Johnson's talents paid
off. By the time he was twenty he earned five dollars a
day playing baseball. But as he moved into professional ball, he learned some
hard lessons. Most teams and audiences cared more about his color
than his talent. Being a black man meant having to face racism daily. He depended
heavily on his family, faith in the future, and wise counsel from older experienced
men to teach him how to better his skills as a player and live as a black man traveling in a
white world.
At the age of 21 he made it to the highest
level of baseball for black men, the Negro Leagues. Until 1947, the Major Leagues excluded all
people of color from competing against white athletes. The Negro Leagues formed in
1920 to provide minorities a chance to show that they were equally skilled athletes, and
to give black businessmen the opportunity to own teams and manage
a league.
It was with his first team, known as the Hilldales, that
Johnson's teammates nicknamed
him "Judy" after an old player who he resembled, Judy Gans. As the third
baseman on the Philadelphia Hilldales, Judy Johnson honed his skills.
The owner of the Hilldale team, Ed Boulden, required that his players dress and act
like gentlemen. Johnson, like
all of Boulden's players learned how to cope with the ugly scenes of racism
he faced every day. Teams in the Negro Leagues traveled a great deal. While travelling
they were often denied service at hotels, restaurants, even gas stations, because they
were black. Negro League players tell stories of being denied water to
drink and
the use of restrooms. They also tell of hostile teams and crowds who
threw
food, cups, and anything they could find at players. Because Negro League players knew they were as good as the Major League players,
because they
loved the game, and because the Negro Leagues offered them a chance to
travel and
make decent money, most players felt that their struggles were worth enduring.
Johnson played for three Negro League teams, the Hilldales
(1921-1929), the Homestead Grays
(1930-1931), and the Pittsburgh Crawfords (1932-1935). He played with the best
players of his day, and earned their respect. Like many Negro League players
of the era, Johnson played winter ball in Cuba and South America.
Johnson retired in 1935 to
his home in Marshallton with his wife Anita T. Irons,
a school teacher at Absalom Jones School, and their daughter Loretta. Never far
from the game in retirement, he offered encouragement and practical tips to any young player who asked
for help. He served as a major league scout for the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee
Braves. He scouted Bill Bruton, a Delawarean and his
future-son-in-law, who went on to lead the American League
in stolen bases for three years. Johnson was able to scout for majors only after Jackie
Robinson, a black man, signed a contract in 1947 to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 1954 Johnson became the first black coach in the majors when he accompanied the
Phillies to Florida for spring training. He coached there until the 1970s.
In 1975, Judy Johnson was the first ballplayer from Delaware inducted into the National
Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 1989, before a statue of him was
dedicated at Judy Johnson Field, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
His house in Marshallton is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
While Johnson was playing, he was one of the most respected players, yet was invisible
to white baseball fans who knew little or nothing of the Negro Leagues. But he kept
playing, and treated all people, black and white, with dignity and love. Never
bitter, he dreamed of a color-blind world. In the end, he gained the greatest honor
his beloved game had to give and the deep respect not only of his peers in baseball, but
of those who have since learned about his great athletic skill, and his dignity, patience, and
eagerness to love all people.
William "Judy" Johnson