Dan Bankhead was the first Afro-American pitcher to make it to the majors. But his career was short and by most standards, very unsatisfying. He was born in Empire, Alabama, on May 3rd, 1920. His parents, Garnett and Arie, had seven children who lived to adulthood. Dan was born Daniel, but it is believed his father shortened it at some point.
Empire is a small town about 30 miles northwest of Birmingham. It is in coal country. Dan’s dad worked as a loader and later as a miner. It was to his family a steady source of income and a step up from being a sharecropper as many African Americans were in those days in the south.