Dick Jackson

Note: This page is for Negro Leagues player Dick Jackson; for the replacement umpire in 1995, click here.

Richard Alvin Jackson
(Workie)

• Bats Unknown, Throws Right
• Height 5' 6"

• Debut 1924
• Final Game 1929
• Born April 8, 1897 in Greenville, SC USA
• Died October 3, 1939 in Greenville, SC USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Infielder Dick Jackson played in the Negro Leagues from 1919 to 1931. he was born in South Carolina and while he made his home in Greenville, SC, he may well have been born in the countryside as census records list his father George as a harness-maker. His date of birth is taken from a World War I draft registration card, when he was working at the Pepsi-Cola bottling plant in Greenville, but in census records, his birth is given as 1896, so there is some uncertainty about that too. He served briefly in the army during the war, being stationed at Camp Jackson in Columbia, SC. He earned his discharged in December of 1918. Earlier that year, on June 8th, he married Addie May Walden.In 1920, he is listed as a house carpenter in Greenville.

Jackson began his baseball career in 1919 with the Greeville Stars, a team that played in a negro textile league, the Piedmont Negro Mill League. The Stars were South Carolina champions and challenged the Atlanta Cubs for regional supremacy that year. Jackson continued to play for the team the next two seasons, but in mid-1921, he was recruited by the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, where he was a back-up infielder for one of the top Negro teams of the time.The team split in 1922, and he joined the New York Bacharach Giants, starting at second base. In 1923, he played briefly for the Brooklyn Royal Giants before moving to the Harrisburg Giants of the Eastern Colored League. He and his wife relocated to Harrisburg, PA, as indicated by city directories of the period. He remained with the team until 1926, when he was traded to the Baltimore Black Sox.

At first, Jackson refused to report to his new team, claiming he was owed back pay by Harrisburg, but things were settled in time for the 1927 season. he was the team's starter at second base in both 1927 and |1928, hitting .327 the first year. He was the team's lead-off hitter in 1928, but suffered a broken leg late in the year and lost his job to Jud Wilson as a result. He hit .325 that season.

In 1929, Jackson was traded to Hilldale with Crush Holloway in exchange for Mervyn Ryan and Frank Warfield. With the Eastern Colored League having folded the previous year, the team was in the new American Negro League. he did not hit particularly well that season, and his fiery temper, which had been on display a number of times before that, got him in trouble when he got into a fight with two teammates on August 29th, an incident during which he broke Joe Strong's head with a brick after Strong reached for a weapon, fracturing his skull. In spite of this, he remained with Hilldale in 1930, but the ANL had folded too, and the team was now an independent one. In 1931, he returned to Baltimore, filling in at second and third base and occasionally in the outfield. he hit .254 in what turned out to be his final professional season.

He returned to Greenville to work as a laborer, but only a few years later, died there of a pulmonary hemorrhage in 1939.

Notable Achievements

• ECL Triples Leader (1924)

Related Sites

• Dick Jackson at the SABR Bio Project