A Dozen Trailblazers - The First Black Phillies

The Phillies were the last team in the National League to use black players. For a decade the only black individuals in Phillies games played for the opposition. They integrated at the start of the 1957 season. Only the American Leagues' Detroit Tigers (1958) and the Boston Red Sox (1959)
integrated later.The Phillies used 12 Black players in their first four years of integrated teams (1957 to 1960). The earliest Afriacn-American and Black Latino Phillies of 1957-1960, playing in a racially divided city had things only slightly easier than the first Black stars of a decade earlier such as Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby (1947), Roy Campanella (1948), Minnie Minoso and Don Newcombe (1949) and Sam Jethroe (1950).

Here's 12 players Phillies fans and all major league fans should take their hats off to for integrating baseball in Philadelphia.

Player..Position...Phillies Team Debut Date

1 Chico Fernandez...(SS)...4/18/1957....Age 79
2 John Kennedy.......(3B)...4/22/1957...(1926-1998)
3 Chuck Harmon.......(OF)..5/10/1957...Age 87.... (Chuck Harmon is the oldest living minority Phillies player at age 87 yrs. 10 months - he is among the 100 oldest livng major leaguers, according to Wikipedia.)
4 Pancho Herrera......(1B)...4/15/1958...(1934-2005)
5 Hank Mason ........(RHP)..9/12/1958...Age 80
6 Valmy Thomas.......(C)....4/10/1959....(1928-2010)
7 Ruben Gomez.......(LHP)..4/10/1959...(1927-2004)
8 Humberto Robinson.(RHP).5/16/1959...(1930-2009)
9 Solly Drake ...........(OF)....6/9/1959....Age 80
10 Tony Curry...........(OF)....4/12/1960...(1937-2006)
11 Tony Taylor..........(2B)....5/13/1960...Age 76
12 Tony Gonzalez......(OF)....6/15/1960...Age 75.