Charles Johnson took pride in knowing that as a player in the Negro Leagues, he helped open the door for other black players to play professional baseball.
Mr. Johnson, who lived on the South Side most of his life, played for the Chicago American Giants as a pitcher and outfielder in the 1930s and early 1940s. One of the oldest surviving Negro Leagues baseball players, Mr. Johnson died Saturday, June 10, at the age of 96 due to complications of prostate cancer.
Born in Pine Bluff, Ark., in 1909, Mr. Johnson grew up on baseball and played in Arkansas, Kansas City and St. Louis before moving with his mother to Chicago when he was 15.
His mother died the same year, and Mr. Johnson, who was an only child, was on his own.
But Mr. Johnson, who lived down the block from Comiskey Park, found a friend in Negro Leagues legend Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, who helped him get into the leagues.
“Duty lived on the same block as Charlie and really took a liking to him,” said friend and former Negro Leagues player Johnny Washington, of Chicago.
Mr. Johnson played during the 1930s for the Chicago American Giants,. But most of the time, Mr. Johnson played on independent barnstorming teams that toured the country, friend Steve Kirby said.
Playing baseball in the Southern states, Mr. Johnson sometimes found himself the object of racial slurs. Though he was a big man and knew how to use his fists, he would rather use words, Washington said.
When someone would say something derogatory, Mr. Johnson would “smile and keep his mouth shut. He would give the other guy a chance to cool down, and then Charlie would go talk to him like a regular person,” Washington said. “That was Charlie.”
In 1942, Mr. Johnson married his girlfriend, Julia, and the two moved into a home in Chicago’s Fuller Park neighborhood, later moving to Chatham.
Mr. Johnson was still playing in the early 1940s when his wife, who worked as a hat maker, persuaded him to quit baseball. In the following years, Mr. Johnson had several different jobs, before taking a position with Illinois Central Railroad in the 1950s as a porter, Kirby said.
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Johnson became the first African-American special agent for Illinois Central Railroad after winning a discrimination lawsuit, Kirby said. His duties there included investigating cargo theft and crimes to passengers.
He retired from the railroad in the early ’70s and worked for a private security firm for about six years after that.
Time never dulled Mr. Johnson’s intellect, and he was as sharp in his 90s as he was in his youth, friends said.
“He had a memory out of sight. Charlie was like an encyclopedia,” Washington said.
Mr. Johnson could navigate the Midwest using side streets because he spent so many days on the road traveling to games before the many highways were built, Washington said.
Not always being able to use the same water fountains or bathrooms as white players did not make Mr. Johnson bitter, Washington said.
And despite being part of a generation of African-American men who paved the way for professional baseball’s integration, Mr. Johnson remained humble to the end about his achievements.
About five years ago, Kirby traveled with Mr. Johnson to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and pointed out a guy who looked like Mr. Johnson in a team picture hanging on the wall.
“Charles just smiled and said, `Yeah, that’s me.’ He never made a big deal about it,” Kirby said.
In the last two decades Mr. Johnson spent much of his time at home reading books and newspapers and watching televised baseball games and programs on PBS in equal amounts, friend Gary Crawford said.
“He was much loved. If you met him, you never forgot him,” Crawford said.
Mr. Johnson’s wife died in 1999. A memorial service for Mr. Johnson will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Oak Woods Cemetery, 1035 E. 67th St.
Another memorial service is planned for Aug. 7 at the Negro League Cafe, 301 E. 43rd St.
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mrdudek@tribune.com
