January 31, 1931 Ernest Banks, hall of fame baseball player, was born in Dallas, Texas. Banks made his professional baseball debut in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball League and broke into the Major Leagues in 1953 with the Chicago Cubs, their first black player.
Archive | January 31, 2011
January 31st in African American History – Thomas Edward Tolan
January 31, 1967 Thomas Edward Tolan, “the Midnight Express” and two-time Gold medal winning Olympian, died. Tolan was born September 29, 1908 in Denver, Colorado and moved with his family to Detroit, Michigan when he was 15 years old. Tolan attended Cass Technical High School where he set state records in the 100 and 220-yard […]