From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Buckner, William
(born: 1867) William Buckner was a trainer for the Chicago Whte Sox baseball team. He can be seen in photographs of the team in 1910 and 1915 @ "P. Lakus, "Decades Before Jackie," April 15, 2014, a Uni-Watch.com webpage. He was one of a few African American trainers with white baseball teams, even though baseball teams were segregated during this period. He was said to have been let go in 1916 (or 1917) because of his race, but was rehired a few years later, in the position 1920-1933. He is listed in the 1930 U.S. Census as a "base ball" club trainer in Chicago.William Buckner was born in Hopkinsville, KY. He was the husband of Lucy Buckner; in 1930, they shared their home with three lodgers at 4740 Prairie Avenue in Chicago. In addition to being a baseball trainer, William was also a barber who owned his own shop [source: 1920 U.S. Census]. During this period he was not a trainer, though he had been a trainer earlier.
In 1901, William Buckner completed a passport application on March 5 for traveling abroad. He was in Worcester, MA when the application was completed with instructions to mail the passport to an address in Massachusetts [source: Passport Certificate #37203 (in Ancestry)]. On the application his employment is listed as trainer.
By 1940, William Buckner was a widower living with his daughter Mary Moffett and her husband. Mary was in charge of a lodging house with five lodgers along with Mary's sister Alice [source: 1940 U.S. Census]. William Buckner was a brother of Harry E. Buckner, trainer for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.
SOURCE: "Mr. William Buckner...," Freeman, 8/5/1916, p. 1, column 5.
