take a moment

On this date in 1979, Luke Easter was shot and killed. The first black Mississippi native to play in the major leagues, Easter was working as a security guard when he was gunned down by a robber outside a bank in Euclid, Ohio. Born in 1915 (by most accounts) in Jonestown, a small community in Coahoma County, Easter was a massive left-handed slugger who hit 93 homers in an abbreviated big league career. He was known for his prodigious home runs, perhaps most impressive a shot into the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds in New York. That’s a poke. Easter, who grew up in St. Louis, rose through the semi-pro and Negro Leagues ranks and finally made the big leagues — at age 34 — with the Cleveland Indians in 1949. He spent most of the next five years in the majors, played on in the minors until he was 48 and then went into coaching in the Baltimore Orioles system. Here’s a nod to one of the state’s pioneers whose life ended tragically and unfairly.