A ceremony was held in Rock Hill on Thursday night that recognized three African Americans who played a key role in integrating baseball in the South in the 1950s.
More than 100 people gathered in downtown Rock Hill. They stood and applauded Wali Cathcart, one of the honorees. David Mobley and Carl Long, who have since passed away, were also recognized. Community members watched a video highlighting the journey of each of the three men in the sport at a time of racial tension in the South during the 1950s.
Cathcart, who spoke at the podium in a blue suit, was struck by the occasion. “I never in my wildest dreams would think that Rock Hill, where I grew up and dreamed of pursuing my dreams, that one day I would be honored by Rock Hill,” Cathcart said. “It’s just difficult to wrap your mind around.”
Some of the men played for minor league teams like the Rock Hill Chiefs, in a league that had only white players. David Mobley was one of them, according to baseball historian Bob Gorman. Gorman nominated the men, whom he refers to as "barrier breakers".
Gorman said that after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, becoming the first African American to play in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, African Americans still faced challenges breaking into the sport. That was the case in the South, Gorman said, until people like Mobley began to play.
Gorman said that in the 1950s, Mobley played for a minor league team called the Rock Hill Chiefs, which was part of a league that had only white players until the Chiefs acquired Mobley, an African American.
“On Aug. 26, 1952, they sent him in halfway through the game to play the game. It was really controversial,” Gorman said. "Several teams, one in Spartanburg and one in Greenville, refused to play if they were going to have a Black player on it, but he became the first African American to integrate minor league baseball in South Carolina.”
Each year, the city of Rock Hill honors people as part of an initiative known as Freedom Walkway, which spotlights those whose efforts promoted equality. Baseball historian Bob Gorman nominated the three men. He said that it's hard to grapple with what the three men dealt with in order to create a pathway for others in baseball.
“They couldn’t stay in the same place as their white teammates. They couldn't eat in restaurants. They couldn't even use restrooms,” Gorman said. "They were threatened. Carl Long, as a young player, came into a town and saw a Black person being lynched, so it's hard for us to understand what it was like ... they basically normalized Blacks and whites playing together.”
Allan Miller, a member of the Freedom Walkway committee, said it was important to honor the men because of what their achievements represent for society today.
"It's important for people to realize how far communities have come, Miller said. "It hasn't been that long ago, 75 or 80 years ago, that the Black population, the minority population, were not treated as equals.”
Monika White was one of the community members who attended the ceremony. White is originally from Rock Hill but grew up in Charlotte.
"I'm proud, very proud,” White said. "I don't even know them ... every time they recognize African Americans here, I'm here because I want to lend that support, and I really enjoyed it tonight.”
Plaques in downtown Rock Hill behind the Kounter restaurant now spotlight the three African American men who helped smash the race barrier in baseball in the South.
