During the 1880s, for a short time, the door to organized baseball was slightly ajar, allowing some African Americans to play and excel in our National Game.
One of these Black baseball pioneers was former Williamsporter Javan Emory, who played both locally and for teams out of the area from about 1877 until about 1897.
Although not as well known by baseball historians as fellow Williamsporter George Stovey, who is considered by baseball historians as the greatest Black pitcher of the 19th century, Emory was an accomplished player in his own right.
The information for this story is taken in large part from the book Crossing the Color Line: Javan Emory, Jacob Francis, Herschel Schnebly, and Howard Molden, by Mark Eberle and James Brunson’s authoritative three- volume history, Black Baseball: 1858 to 1900.
Javan Emory’s father, Enoch, worked as a waiter and cook in several locales. Javan was born in 1859, and he and his father came to Williamsport sometime during the 1860s.
By the mid-1870s, Emory had become involved in baseball and was apparently quite proficient at it.
In 1876, he played for the Enterprise Baseball Club of Williamsport, and in 1877, he helped form and was a member of an early Black team in Williamsport called the “Lumber City Baseball Club.”
He also saw action with other local Black teams and the Independent Baseball Club, as well as playing with Williamsport’s predominantly white town team.
Through the early 1880s, Emory continued to play for the Lumber City BBC, but he occasionally joined the Williamsport town team and teams in other towns. He reportedly played for the Jersey Shore team in a game in July 1884 in Jersey Shore.
George Stovey joined Emory and his brother, Sims, in 1885 on the Lumber City Baseball Club. Javan served as Stovey’s sometime battery mate as a catcher and sometime second baseman.
The year 1887 proved to be a cruel one for Javan and Stovey and all other Black ballplayers who entertained dreams of baseball greatness. That year, an unwritten “gentlemen’s agreement” banned the signing of anymore Black ball players to contracts in organized baseball. This would prevail until Jackie Robinson’s time in 1947.
The descent of baseball’s color line denied Emory the chance to play for the Scranton team of the International League and ended Stovey’s chance at Major League glory. Stovey had won either 33 or 34 games for the Newark team of that league, a record that still stands and was being considered for signing by the Major League’s New York Giants.
Both Emory and Stovey were forced to turn their talents to all-Black teams such as the New York Gorhams, the Cuban Giants, and the Philadelphia Pythians, all members of the short-lived National Colored League. All these teams were fine, accomplished teams that helped lay the foundation for the more successful Negro Leagues of the 1920s to the 1940s.
After the Pythians and the league folded, Emory returned to Williamsport and played for Danville in the Central Pennsylvania League. In 1887, Emory had seen action in the Central Pennsylvania League with both Minersville and Mahanoy City.
Emory played briefly with the New York Gorhams on August 7, 1889, reuniting briefly with fellow Williamsport native George Stovey. He served as Stovey’s catcher on August 7, 1889.
“Now in his 30s, he continued to play baseball in Williamsport and nearby communities. Occasionally, he played for a predominantly white team, but mostly he played for Black teams. In 1891, he captained the Kepfords. The following year, he led the resurrected Lumber Citys. In 1893–1895, his team was referred to as Javan Emory’s Colts, whose roster included his brother, Sims Emory.”
Emory had unquestioned leadership skills, as shown by his being named captain of not just the local teams but also the 1887 Philadelphia Pythians in the National Colored League and the 1889 New York Gorhams in the Middle States League. However, he also had a reputation as a “kicker,” passionately arguing calls, sometimes to the point of ending the game. After one such event in May 1894 — a game between the Williamsport, white town team and Emory’s Colts — the manager of the Williamsport team wrote a letter to the Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin, asking Emory to control his temper. “If Javan cannot play a game of ball without kicking, we wish to state that we will not play his team anymore. We try to play a gentlemanly game, and as we charge no admission, we can’t see why Javan should kick so much.”
In 1896, Emory organized a local team under the name Emory’s Cuban Giants. After that, there was little mention of him playing baseball, though he did so into his early 40s. When not playing baseball, Emory continued working as a waiter and participating in other activities.
At some point, he married Anna Margaret “Maggie” Emory, and the two raised a family. Sometime before 1910, they must have moved from Williamsport, because he appears in the 1910 census living in Reading.
Javan Emory died in Philadelphia on June 22, 1923, an interesting but forgotten Black baseball pioneer.
