Nestled in the midst of skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of the busy metropolitan of Houston, Texas, lies an inconspicuous, hidden historical gem, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. The beauty of this iconic church captures the observer’s eye, but so should its impressive history. The declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those enslaved in the Confederacy, was made by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, and declared to go into effect on January 1, 1863. However, it would not be read this far south in Texas until 1865, when it was read in Galveston on June 19, known today as ‘Juneteenth’. Once the enslaved citizens of Houston were freed, a select few began this first African American church in Houston. It was originally located at 313 Robin Street as part of the Fourth Ward, also known as Freedmen’s Town, a community of freed men created after the close of the Civil War. Today, its modern address is 500 Clay Street and it is still used for worship in the city of Houston today.
Prior to the emancipation of slaves, only two churches in Houston were known to have allowed enslaved men and women to attend their services: the Methodist church and the Baptist church. Once freed, two white missionaries, Reverend W. C. Crane and Reverend J. B. Link, from the local First Baptist Church and German Baptist Church would assist a handful of men and women to form their own church, in the back pews.
The use and attendance of these two churches would only last approximately seven months as renovations of the host churches, First Baptist Church and German Baptist Church, would cause complications for the recently freed black attendees to continue at the back. This would cause seven African American members to initiate the beginnings of what would later be called Antioch Baptist Church. They gathered under a self-assembled “Brush Arbor” at the modern-day location of Rusk and Bagby Street on the edge of the Buffalo Bayou, which is about six blocks north of the modern-day location of the church. Within a years’ time, this makeshift church would build a simple one-story rectangular building to hold their worship in, known as “Baptist Hill”. The church would move to its current location in 1873.
Itinerant preacher and black missionary, Reverend I. S. Campbell of the Northern Baptist Missionary Association, was dispatched to these newly freed congregants in 1867 to provide spiritual guidance and training. Along the way he encountered John Henry (Jack) Yates, a former African American slave who was capable in reading the Bible, leading prayer and hymns. After being ordained by Campbell and Elder J. J. Ryanhart, this godsend would become the first pastor of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Attendance would dramatically increase under Yates’ leadership, causing the need for a new, larger location for the congregants to meet. He would oversee the construction of the current church, but would leave in 1891 over a dispute on borrowing money to complete the remodeling and enlargement of the church.
While the status of being the first African American Church in the Houston area is monumental enough, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church has also been significant in assisting in the success of its community members of Freedmen’s Town. It not only aided in the spiritual needs of its community, but also in the economic, educational, and social needs. Antioch was active in the promotion of newly freed slaves’ education. In 1885, together with Northern Baptist missionaries Miss Peck and Miss Dysart, Antioch began the first private school for freedmen. Known as the Houston Baptist Academy, and later as the Houston College for Negros, these would be the predecessors to the current Texas Southern University in Houston today. At the academy students would learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. They would also have the opportunity to learn specific trades. This allowed the students to start their own businesses within the community. It would continue to support the education of African Americans in the Houston community throughout the 1920s. Pastor Yates ensured that through the church, recently freed slaves could also learn how to buy homes, pay taxes, vote, and raise gardens.
In 1882, along with Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, members of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church purchased Emancipation Park, Houston’s first black park. It was utilized as a place for blacks to voice their civic concerns and host social gatherings, as well as a park for their children to play safely. The church began the annual Juneteenth celebration in this park, which is still held to this day. This park is still located in Houston’s Third Ward.
As time progressed, the Antioch building was expanded and renovations were made. New programs were created, such as youth outreach programs and Vacation Bible Schools. While the historical significance of the church continued to grow, its true desire to reach souls for Jesus was never lost. In 1931, under Reverend Thomas J. Goodall, Jr. many modern updates were made and the land adjacent to the church was purchased. Known today as Antioch Park, the iconic sign “Jesus Saves” was placed and still exists today.
As the city of Houston grew to the metropolis it is today, all of Freedmen’s Town, north of interstate 45 slowly gave way to newer and bigger structures. Antioch Missionary Baptist Church now stands as the only building representative of the Fourth Ward north of the interstate, as of 2012. Its iconic Gothic features and “Jesus Saves” sign stands as a testament to the achievements of the formerly enslaved men and women who began a church, not just to service the spiritual needs of blacks in Houston, but also their social, economic, and educational growth. In 1976 the church became the tenth structure to be part of the National Register of Historic Places in Houston. In 1991, the church received international notice as an ethnic icon when Queen Elizabeth II of England visited. Then in 2019, the cultural agency UNESCO of the United Nations listed Antioch Baptist Church as part of their Slave Route Project in the South. Also included in this list, was Emancipation Park.
]]>As player, manager, team owner, and league president, Andrew "Rube" Foster organized and improved black baseball in America during the 1910s and 1920s. Foster was born in 1879 in the cotton town of Calvert, Texas though his career would quickly take him to the urban centers of the North. At seventeen his abilities first led him to the Waco Yellow Jackets, a semi-professional black team. Talk of Foster's skills quickly spread and carried him to Hot Springs, Arkansas where he earned the nickname "Rube" after defeating Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics, a white major league team. Between 1902 and 1907 Foster moved in and out of professional black baseball shuffling between teams before finally landing with the Leland Giants in Chicago. During this time his reputation and prowess on the mound grew to mythic levels fueled by his near perfect winning percentage.
Foster's contributions to baseball far exceeded a winning record. His article in "Sol White's Official Base Ball Guide" shared his strategy for pitch selection and his forward-looking ideas about conditioning and stretching, advice that impacted both black and white pitchers. Foster became manager of the Leland Giants and began altering the business model of Negro League baseball, negotiating higher profits for his team and scheduling games to maximize revenue. Foster eventually left Frank Leland in 1909 with legal rights to the name, the Leland Giants, and most of the team's star players to create his own franchise. From his position as owner of the American Giants, Foster doggedly pushed for control of all Negro League baseball to ensure organization and wide-spread financial success. Other owners, some of whom were white, resisted Foster's efforts to organize the different teams for fear of additional costs and restrictions on play that might impact profits.
In February 1920 Foster would achieve his goal of a unified black baseball league. Meeting in Kansas City, owners of professional black baseball teams met to create the Negro National Baseball League and named Foster as the league's president. As president, Foster set the schedule of the league and even moved players around to promote competitiveness, understanding that teams with miserable records hurt attendance and everyone's revenue. Foster significantly impacted black baseball in Texas by encouraging his league teams to conduct spring training and exhibition games in the state, which stimulated local excitement for the game. The matches also placed local talent on display for Negro League organizations, a significant economic opportunity for small town African Americans.
Between 1920 and 1926 Foster led the Negro National League, creating a tradition that would last through the 1960s. Foster's leadership ended in 1926 with his involuntary commitment to the Kankakee Asylum after a mental breakdown. He would die in the institution four years later.
Rube Foster's vision of Negro League baseball never centered on segregation, but on integration. "We have to be ready when the day comes," he reportedly told a friend. Foster's purpose in playing and leading the Negro League was to ensure that black players were competitive on the day that major league finally reopened its doors to African Americans. Foster would not live to see the integration of baseball, but his creation and cultivation of organized professional black baseball would ensure a home for greats like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson and a training ground for future major league greats like Ernie Banks and Willie Mays.
]]>Professional baseball began as a collection of company teams in the newly industrialized northeast of the 19th century, and through most of the 20th century the pride of industrial cities often stemmed from the exploits of the local team. Houston, as a city with growing industrial importance, was no different. Although Houston only received a major league team in 1962, the city's relationship with America's game stretches back to the 19th century, and for 33 years Buffalo Stadium served the teams, white and black, professional and semiprofessional, that called Houston home.
Built in 1928 with funding from the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston's Buffalo Stadium stood at the corner of Leeland and Bernard streets (now Cullen Boulevard). The Cardinals purchased an interest in the Houston Buffaloes in 1920 and then provided $400,000 for the 14,000-seat stadium. With covered seats stretching down both the first and third base lines, the new stadium pulled the center of baseball away from Houston's growing downtown and the Fourth Ward where Houston's first ball park, West End Park, was located. To increase attendance, lights and night games came to the park in 1930, and the increased corporate nature of baseball struck Buffalo Stadium in 1953 when it was renamed Busch Stadium. The name change reflected the company's interest in the stadium and team; however, locals remained loyal to the original name. The stadium would see nine Texas League championships, multiple exhibition games with major league teams, an exhibition game with Jackie Robinson's All Stars, and the height and end of black baseball.
Buffalo Stadium entertained the African American citizens of Houston with the games of the Black Buffaloes, the Black Eagles, and their black baseball opponents from around Texas and the country. Most black teams in Texas rented the stadium of their local white counterparts. Black teams using white facilities could only play on weekends when the white team had an away game, but interior team facilities, such as showers, were traditionally off limits. Despite the indignities of segregation, the ability to play in a white stadium allowed black teams to achieve a higher level of play unhampered by uneven surfaces and muddy outfields that plagued other stadiums. After only two seasons the owners of the Black Buffaloes sacrificed the quality of play for a location closer to their customer base and returned the team to West End Park. African Americans who made up much of the Fourth Ward population found it difficult to attend games in the industrial southeast quarter of the city. Black baseball would return to Buffalo Stadium in 1949 with the Negro Texas League Black Eagles. Though the Eagles played some of the best Negro League teams from across the country, the team suffered from low attendance. An import from Newark, New Jersey, the Black Eagles had few local players that could establish a connection to the community, and most African Americans now cheered newly integrated teams.
After the demise of the Black Eagles and the Negro Texas League, the Houston Buffaloes would continue to run the bases of Buffalo Stadium until 1961. In the intervening years African Americans returned to the Buffalo Stadium diamond. The Buffaloes followed the lead of major league baseball and integrated their roster. Even while segregation still ruled in public facilities across Houston, Bob Boyd and Hall of Fame outfielder Willard Brown stepped onto the grass of Buffalo Stadium in 1954 alongside white players. While Brown was wrapping up his career in Houston after a successful career in the Negro Leagues, Boyd used Buffalo Stadium as a training ground for his eventual successful career for the Baltimore Orioles. The arrival of major league baseball in Houston was the end for the Houston Buffaloes and their field. Buffalo Stadium was demolished in 1963, and Houston's next home for baseball, the Astrodome, was fully integrated.
]]>From the 1930s until the 1950s the Diboll Dragons contributed to the entertainment and community pride of the African American population of Diboll. Southern Pine Lumber Company drove the creation and growth of Diboll, establishing the town's schools and churches and contributing to the creation of local baseball. Between one-third and one-half of the workforce of Southern Pine was African American, and these workers formed, almost exclusively, the line-ups of the Diboll Dragons.
The team of black mill workers played almost every Sunday with a special game on Juneteenth. Located along present day Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Pine Street, the home field of the Diboll Dragons featured simple fencing and covered bleachers constructed from the white pine milled in Diboll. Unlike most Texas semi-professional black teams, neither a black-owned business nor even the players' employer supported the Diboll Dragons financially. Each player personally bankrolled away game excursions and equipment purchases with the dozen or fewer players sharing in the gate receipts from both home and away games. Each nickel or dime ticket financed the baseball dreams of the young African American men of Diboll. Most semi-professional and even professional Negro teams in Texas suffered from a lack of funds, and even larger towns like Waco and Corsicana had a hard time keeping teams afloat. Diboll defied this trend through its loyal community support and supply of players from Southern Pine.
Unlike Major League white baseball where teams practically owned players, African American teams at every level suffered from the free movement of players in search of better pay and winning records. Black baseball provided one of the few ways to escape home towns for the opportunities of larger Texas cities or, for a lucky few, the world of professional Negro league baseball in the North. Players for the Diboll Dragons were typically local, but the team included players from Arkansas and Louisiana. Ruben "Jelly" Samuel rode the rails and walked from Shreveport to Diboll because the Dragons were better. In the world of semi-professional black baseball wins equaled larger gate receipts and usually better pay. Samuel joined the Dragons as a left-fielder and the ranks of Southern Pine as a planer.
While the Depression, World War II draft, and integration of Major League baseball hurt most semi-professional ball in Texas, the Diboll Dragons maintained support through the 1940s. This success was due to the isolation of Diboll and the strong connection to the African American community and workforce of Southern Pine Lumber. Despite this long success, in 1950 a game between the Diboll Dragons and an integrated team from Minot, North Dakota, would be the end of the Diboll Dragons and the beginning of the end for semi-professional baseball in Diboll. The two teams played in the local white stadium, which offered a better field and more seating. "Jelly" Samuel remembers the stadium completely full of locals cheering on their 1-0 victory. After the game a disagreement between players and managers over the amount of gate receipts led to most of the team quitting and several leaving Diboll for better opportunities. Many of the players who quit went on to form the Diboll Eagles, relying on high school players to fill in as needed. By 1958 the Diboll Eagles ceased as a semi-professional team and became a community team called the Diboll Tigers.
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