Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes

6. Satchel Paige’s Struggle for Selfhood in the Era of Jim Crow

6 Satchel Paige’s Struggle for Selfhood in the Era of Jim Crow D O N A L D S P I V E Y Leroy Paige would rise from the humblest beginnings imaginable to become one of the most famous and acclaimed athletes in the world, black or white, and he accomplished this feat in a period synonymous with Jim Crow, the color line, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, poll taxes, white citizens councils, nightriders, and lynchings. Baseball would become not only his ticket out of poverty but also a platform for self expression as he entertained throngs of thousands throughout the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Leroy Paige (the spelling of the family name was “Page” until changed years later) was born on July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Alabama. The alleged uncertainty of his actual date of birth was a controversy that Paige himself fueled when, years past the usual prime in an athletic career, he turned reporters’ questions about his age into a game of hideand -seek, to the delight of fans and sport pundits. Ironically, although Paige was purposefully deceiving and toying with the media regarding his date of birth, his actual birthday was at best an approximation. His mother, Lula Paige, had not recorded it in the family Bible. Indeed, the Paiges were so impoverished they did not possess a quality family Bible. Leroy, like countless other African Americans in the South, was delivered by a midwife. It was also fairly common for state authorities to neglect to officially document black births, with many remaining unrecorded or uncertified until employment or other personal needs necessitated it. The document that would be used to “authenticate” Leroy Paige’s date of birth was issued as the result of a formal request for proof made decades after his birth. The Office of Vital Statistics in Mobile received the request and, after its investigation, which typically 1WIGGINS_pages_i-132.qxd 9/12/06 11:46 AM Page 93 Satchel Paige was one of the most-photographed players in Negro League baseball. Here he is pictured in his Kansas City Monarchs uniform. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, New York) 1WIGGINS_pages_i-132.qxd 9/12/06 11:46 AM Page 94 meant asking questions and taking into consideration whatever evidence , including character witnesses, issued a “verification of birth”— not a birth certificate—in 1954. Whether born on July 7, 1906, or a few days earlier or later, or off by a year or two, that date was in all likelihood just a reasonably close approximation.1 The debate regarding the authentication of the date of Leroy Paige’s birth paled in significance to the raw conditions into which he was born. The Paige family home, which lay literally across the tracks at 754 South Franklin Street in Mobile, was more a home in theory than in function and reality. It was indeed the place where the family, headed by Lula and John Paige, came in out of the rain, slept, and took their meals. It was, however, a far cry from being a home. The tiny four-room shotgun house could simply not accommodate a family of twelve. The well that fed the pump outside provided the only “running” water and the odor from their too-close outhouse had become so familiar that it went unnoticed. John Paige’s work as a common laborer and Lula Paige’s work as a domestic were not enough to guarantee that there would be food on the table. The finer things of life were at best a distant dream for the ten siblings and perhaps no longer even a memory for John and Lula. Poverty necessitated that every member of the family work. Young Leroy began scavenging for discarded refundable bottles when he was barely five years of age. As soon as he was big enough, he graduated to hustling luggage at the L&N train station. The more bags you could tote, the more you earned in tips. By the time Leroy was nine he had established himself as a freelance master porter. Carrying as many satchels as his youthful strength humanly permitted— sometimes as many as four or five strapped to a pole—his fellow young porters soon dubbed him with the nickname that became his personalized moniker for the rest of his life: “Satchel.” His nickname legacy was born out of poverty as was the athletic skill that would...