Satchel Paige
Born July 7, 1906 (Mobile, Alabama)
Died June 5, 1982 (Kansas City, Missouri)
Baseball player
During the prosperous Roaring Twenties, more U.S. citizens than ever before had extra income to spend on entertainment. Many were purchasing tickets to sporting events, and athletes like baseball's Babe Ruth (1895–1948; see entry) and boxing's Jack Dempsey (1895–1983; see entry) were becoming major celebrities. Meanwhile, the segregation (separation of white and black people) of U.S. society, which applied to professional sports as well as other areas, meant that African Americans had to find their own heroes. Fortunately, the Negro baseball leagues that were formed at the beginning of the 1920s provided plenty of stars to thrill black fans. Perhaps the brightest of these was pitcher Satchel Paige. Although many of his major accomplishments occurred in later decades (and Paige lived long enough to play in the Major Leagues after they were integrated), it was during the 1920s that his career got off to its brilliant start.
Young, Tall, and Talented
The son of a gardener named John Paige and his wife Lula, Leroy Paige was born into a family of eight children that lived in poverty in the coastal city of Mobile, Alabama.
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