I Was Born a Grown Man

I was Born a Grown Man

David E. Miller As Told by Melvin "Buck" Duncan

Melvin "Buck" Duncan's love for baseball began when a local insurance agent in Centralia selected him for a youth baseball team.

"I was fourteen at the time, and this is when I fell head over heels with the game of baseball. Now don't get me wrong—I loved all sports, particularly boxing and football. The neighborhood kids were a ragtag group of youngsters who had no uniforms."

This early start led to a professional career which brought accolades and achievement, despite obstacles in the 1940s and beyond.

The problem was Melvin "Buck" Duncan was black.

Negro baseball leagues have a deep historical significance. Racism and "Jim Crow" laws encouraged segregation of African Americans and whites. Arguably, the players on the Negro baseball leagues were some of the best ever. Even today, they are still recognized and honored for their wonderful contribution to baseball as a whole. It's safe to say that the Negro league owners had made a "gentleman's agreement" to keep blacks from playing in the major leagues. It was once said by Martin Luther King Jr., "[Segregation] gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, it gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority."
 

David E. Miller is a native of Centralia, Illinois. He is a Cum Laude graduate from Benedict College (South Carolina) in the field of Criminal Justice. He also attained a Master's of Public Administration from Bowling Green State University (Ohio).

Miller is currently working on an upcoming book entitled, Small Town Black, a semi-autobiographical account of his life growing up in a small Illinois community.

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