Zanesville's Thomas inspiration for baseball's integration

ZANESVILLE − The integration of Major League Baseball occurred on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first Black player in the league since the 1880s.

Robinson was chosen by Dodger's General Manager Branch Rickey. Zanesville Historian Peter Cultice said Rickey was inspired when he met Charles Thomas more than 40 years before.

Thomas graduated from Zanesville High School in 1902. Cultice said Thomas was an outstanding athlete, playing baseball, football and running track. Upon graduation, Thomas enrolled in Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Rickey and Thomas met when they were playing on the OWU football team in 1902. Rickey later became OWU's athletic director and baseball coach, recruiting Thomas to play on the baseball team.

Zanesville baseball historian Phil Wymer wrote in an unpublished article submitted to the Times Recorder that in a 1969 interview, Thomas said Rickey "took special interest in his welfare as he was the first Black player on any of (OWU's)teams."

Thomas was well regarded by his fellow students at OWU. In 1905, OWU's newspaper, the Transcript, said of Thomas “we can hardly hope to find a man who is as strong an all around player as Tommy. Success to him in whatever he may do.”

A letter to the editor in May 1905, described a baseball game in which Thomas played: “the only unpleasant feature of the game was the course slurs cast at Mr. Thomas, the catcher. But through it all he showed himself far more the gentleman than his insolent tormentors, though their skin is white.”

"As Jackie Robinson would do, Dr. Charles Lee Thomas handled the racial slurs directed at him with dignity and grace," Cultice wrote in an historical account about Thomas' life.

Thomas played baseball at OWU for three seasons. He is believed to be the first Black athlete to receive a varsity letter at the university, Wymer said.

"During the three school years they were together, Mr. Rickey saw firsthand how mean, vicious, and vindictive racial discrimination could be. Besides the onslaught of racial slurs, OWU faced threats of teams not taking the field because the color of Tommy’s skin," Cultice said.

One of the more prominent incidents was when OWU travelled to South Bend, Indiana, to play Notre Dame in 1903. The name of the hotel has been obscured somewhat by history, with some articles called it the Grand Hotel, and others called it the Oliver Hotel, but whatever hotel it was, hotel management refused to allow Thomas to have a room.

Thomas ended up staying on a cot in Rickey's room that night. Cultice wrote that Thomas was despondent about his treatment. That night, Cultice said, Rickey promised him that some day baseball would be integrated.

Thomas withdrew from OWU in 1906 and it is unlikely he graduated, Cultice said. Thomas enrolled at the dental school at Ohio Medical College, graduating in 1908. He opened a dental practice in St. Louis, then moved to Albuquerque, NM in 1920, where he practiced dentistry until he retired in 1960.

Rickey and Thomas kept in touch for the rest of their lives. During a game at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park while Rickey was with the Cardinals, the two talked in Rickey's office, rather than subjecting Thomas to the segregated park. Cultice said during that meeting Rickey repeated his promise that some day, baseball would be different.

"Because of Branch Rickey’s position with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the support of the Board of Directors, Branch Rickey kept his promise to Dr. Charles Thomas on April 15, 1947. That promise was Jackie Robinson," Cultice said.

Thomas died in Albuquerque in 1971, Rickey died in 1965 in Columbia, Mo.

"Two men, one from Zanesville, Ohio, and the other from Stockdale, Ohio, for a brief three-year period of time in Delaware, Ohio, set in motion the integration of major league baseball. Zanesville can be and should be very proud of Dr. Charles Lee Thomas for what he and Branch Rickey set in motion and were able to accomplish," Cultice said.

ccrook@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Zanesville's Thomas inspiration for baseball's integration