Mamie Johnson, here in a file image, is the first female pitcher in Negro Leagues history. - Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
PHILADELPHIA — In May 1883, in the Lamokin Woods in Chester, a group of Black women strode down a hill. Leading them was Ella Harris, who wore a fashionable pink calico dress and a white jockey cap. She hoisted a baseball bat over one shoulder.
The red ribbon pinned to her dress distinguished her as the captain of the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, a baseball team fully composed of Black women.
Her team wasn’t alone in the woods; a large crowd of people of all ages and races had gathered, awaiting the game that had been announced the day before.
