Professional baseball player. Sykes pitched in the pre-Negro leagues and Negro leagues from 1914 to 1924 with several teams. He began his career pitching for New York-based clubs, including the New York Lincoln Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, and New York Lincoln Stars. Sykes played for the Hilldale Club from 1917-18, managing the team in the latter year, before joining the Baltimore Black Sox in 1920. He threw a no-hitter in 1922 against the Bacharach Giants. Sykes remained with the club when it joined the upstart Eastern Colored League in 1923, pitching in 22 documented games for the team from 1923-24, going 7-9 with a 4.68 earned run average. Across all levels of documented games in his 10-year career, he had a 34-39 win-loss record and a 3.51 ERA. Outside of baseball, Sykes graduated from Morehouse College and Howard University's School of Dentistry in 1918 and became a dentist in Baltimore for 10 years. He returned to his home of Alabama and achieved perhaps his greatest fame when he provided testimony in the Scottsboro Boys trial, challenging the fairness of the all-white jury when nine African American teenagers and young men, ages 13 to 20, were accused of raping two white women in 1931 in Alabama. Sykes received death threats for speaking out on the case and offering shelter to black journalists who were covering the trial. He eventually left Alabama to escape harassment and moved back to Baltimore in 1937.
Professional baseball player. Sykes pitched in the pre-Negro leagues and Negro leagues from 1914 to 1924 with several teams. He began his career pitching for New York-based clubs, including the New York Lincoln Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, and New York Lincoln Stars. Sykes played for the Hilldale Club from 1917-18, managing the team in the latter year, before joining the Baltimore Black Sox in 1920. He threw a no-hitter in 1922 against the Bacharach Giants. Sykes remained with the club when it joined the upstart Eastern Colored League in 1923, pitching in 22 documented games for the team from 1923-24, going 7-9 with a 4.68 earned run average. Across all levels of documented games in his 10-year career, he had a 34-39 win-loss record and a 3.51 ERA. Outside of baseball, Sykes graduated from Morehouse College and Howard University's School of Dentistry in 1918 and became a dentist in Baltimore for 10 years. He returned to his home of Alabama and achieved perhaps his greatest fame when he provided testimony in the Scottsboro Boys trial, challenging the fairness of the all-white jury when nine African American teenagers and young men, ages 13 to 20, were accused of raping two white women in 1931 in Alabama. Sykes received death threats for speaking out on the case and offering shelter to black journalists who were covering the trial. He eventually left Alabama to escape harassment and moved back to Baltimore in 1937.
Bio by: Adam Penale
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Sykes memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
