Roy Campanella, nicknamed "Campy", was an American professional baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for nine years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom he played until 1957. His playing career ended when he was paralyzed in an automobile accident in January 1958. He is considered one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
Campanella with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956
Campanella, circa 1953
Campanella with teammates Jackie Robinson and Jim Gilliam in Japan, 1956
Campanella with Dodgers manager Walter Alston and Yankees manager Casey Stengel during "Roy Campanella Night" at the L.A. Coliseum, May 1959
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
Octavius Catto, black baseball pioneer
Bud Fowler, the first professional black baseball player with one of his teams, Western of Keokuk, Iowa
Moses Fleetwood Walker, possibly the first African American major league baseball player
Chicago Union Giants in 1905