COLLINGDALE. Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — As Hakeem Thomas Sr. stood by a grave at Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Delaware County, on a bright, breezy, 50-degree November morning, something was eating at him.
He looked at the slanted black, onyx, two-foot square headstone and read the name aloud: “Daniel McClellan.”
Thomas, Eden Cemetery’s superintendent, continued, “He was the first Negro League pitching great. He also threw the first perfect game in Black history.”
McClellan, who was born in 1878 and died in Philadelphia in 1962, pitched in the Negro Leagues for parts of 12 seasons. He was a 5-feet, 5-inches tall, 168-pound lefty who finished his career with a 2.91 ERA — fantastic by just about any measure in baseball.
As for being the first Black player of record to pitch a perfect game, consider the following for context: Major League Baseball has been around for 140 years. More than 235,000 games have been played.
All-time, a combined 21 pitchers have tossed a total of 23 perfect games.
In other words, perfect games are really rare and a really big deal.
Here’s the thing that was bothering Thomas: For more than half a century, McClellan’s grave went unmarked. No headstone. No slab in the ground. Nothing.
“Not even being honored the proper way,” said Thomas. “It’s truly a disservice.”
That changed in 2019, thanks to the Negro League Baseball Grave Marker Project.
Photo credit Brian Seltzer/KYW Podcasts
As tragic as McClellan’s story sounds, it’s not an isolated case.
Thomas said at least 19 of the graves for Negro Leagues players and executives at Eden Cemetery need markers.
While that number might seem large, it pales in comparison to the 20,000 unmarked graves overall at Eden. Thomas estimates 96,000 people are buried at the 53-acre site.
“It’s such a disappointment for them not to be recognized in the way they should.”
Tucked between a few residential blocks and busy Springfield Road, Eden Cemetery is the oldest existing Black-owned cemetery in the United States. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
The cemetery opened in 1902 in response to an African American burial crisis and has since become the final resting place for pioneers including Philadelphia-born singer Marian Anderson, abolitionist William Still, and activist Octavius Catto.
Photo credit Brian Seltzer/KYW Podcasts
“[African Americans] had several burial obstacles we had to overcome,” Thomas said.
Even nearly 40 years after the end of the Civil War, segregation continued to divide the United States in the form of separate-but-equal court rulings and Jim Crow laws.
When four African American cemeteries in Philadelphia were forced to close at the turn of the 20th century, Eden emerged as the answer.
Still, there was opposition. White neighbors reportedly protested the cemetery’s first African American burial ground attempt.
“It was hard for us to bury loved ones,” said Thomas. “It was difficult due to racism and things like that.”
As Eden re-interred remains from other cemeteries and created large public grave sites, headstones were either lost or never installed in the first place. Some records fell through the cracks.
Nowadays, if a family member or third-party organization, such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, wants to locate an unmarked grave, the process could take four to six months to finish.
It begins with Eden Cemetery’s office staff, who consult two filing cabinets worth of “section books” dating back over 100 years.
Each book contains vital information for identifying unmarked burial plots, such as first and last names, date of death, age, funeral home detail, and lot numbers.
Photo credit Brian Seltzer/KYW Podcasts
“This is necessary,” Thomas said. “It wouldn’t be possible without these books.”
With 20,000 unmarked graves at Eden, progress is gradual.
“Slow and steady,” said Thomas, “but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Unmarked graves are among several challenges African Americans face when they try to retrace their roots. These personal deep dives into family history are complicated — sometimes stymied entirely — by the ripple effects of American slavery, segregation and racism.
“When African Americans generally refer to the ‘brick wall,’ they refer to the 1870 brick wall,” said genealogist and historian Dean Henry. The 1870 U.S. Census was the first time the federal government attempted to account for the full names of African Americans who were enslaved before the passage of the 13th Amendment.
The genealogy bug bit the 70-year-old West Philadelphia native hard after he retired from a career in information technology 12 years ago. He currently serves as an executive committee member for the African-American Genealogy Group, based in Philadelphia.
“Our mission is to educate, provide resources, and create community for anyone interested in African American family history and genealogical research. We serve those who are interested in researching their family history locally, regionally and nationally,” Henry said.
Connecting the names of African Americans identified in the 1870 Census to their corresponding pre-emancipation records is notoriously difficult.
“Before that, if your ancestor was enslaved, they were probably only referred to by first name, they may have been listed by gender and age only,” Henry said. “The only way you would find that is if you can find the last enslaver. So that truly is a brick wall for a lot of African Americans.”
Through his own research, Henry has uncovered fascinating details about his ancestry.
He pieced together, for instance, that he is a descendent of a fighter in the Revolutionary War, and has enough evidence to hypothesize that his second great grandfather was enslaved by Thomas Yuille Henry, the grandson of Patrick Henry, one of the nation’s founders — perhaps best known, ironically, for saying “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
Discoveries like these can help connect the dots, and they can also be sources of great pain.
“It used to seem to me even the 1800s was way, way, far away,” said Henry. “This information that we’re tracing back isn’t that old at all. In a lot of cases, it’s been hidden, it’s been lost. In the case of African Americans, slavery was something that people were ashamed of, they didn’t really want to talk about.
“I’ve seen it a lot where people find out their ancestors listed with a dollar amount associated with them. Or, in my case, where I had family members that were split apart.
“So yeah, you definitely have to be prepared for some downsides.”
Photo credit Brian Seltzer/KYW Podcasts
To help make genealogy less intimidating for African Americans, Henry and the African American Genealogy Group have curated a list of tools on the nonprofit’s website.
The organization’s volunteers have also dedicated a lot of time to documenting Eden Cemetery’s grave sites online so interested parties can look them up through Find a Grave.
“Without a knowledge of your history is like having a tree without its roots,” Henry said. “You really need that to complete you.”
The pursuit is worth it for African Americans, Henry says.
“It’s about making the tree stronger and stronger. It helps me know who I am.”
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