Chattanooga Baseball — Lincoln Park

Chattanooga Baseball — Lincoln Park. . A few blocks north of Engel Stadium stands another landmark of Chattanooga baseball history. Established in 1918 amid the racial segregation and inherent inequality of the Jim Crow South, Lincoln Park served as a social and recreational oasis for black Chattanoogans barred from the whites-only Warner Park. Featuring a picnic area, bandstand, playground, basketball and tennis courts, a small amusement park and zoo, and an Olympic-size, WPA-constructed swimming pool and bathhouse, Lincoln Park was an anchor for local black life and identity as well as a magnet for African Americans throughout the region., The baseball field was an additional focal point of the park, especially after 1938 when lights were added for evening play. Utilized for black industrial leagues and recreational softball, Lincoln Park also hosted decades of local and visiting Negro League baseball teams cheered on by black spectators free momentarily from the gaze and indignities of a white supremacist society. Though the historical record and memory frequently highlight African American stars who played at the more stately but segregated Engel Stadium, the likes of Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays more often played at the Lincoln Park field. One team that called Lincoln Park home was the semi-professional Chattanooga Choo Choos, owned by local black businessman Beck Shepherd who discovered and then fielded the teenage Mays in the mid-1940s., Like Negro League baseball, Lincoln Park declined in the decades after legal integration and the modern Civil Rights Movement. Though the death of Jim Crow birthed new hope for racial justice, the late twentieth century also witnessed the erosion of secure community and cultural spaces for Chattanooga's black citizens. Substantial portions of the historic park, including the filled-in pool, have been absorbed into Erlanger Health System's expanding footprint. Though the baseball field remains intact, no marker recognizes the site's historical significance and the fate of the parceled property is uncertain., Captions: , Top left: Entrance to historic Lincoln Park today. , Bottom left: Map of Lincoln Park (including the "Base Ball Field") in 1929. source: Sanborn Insurance Company , Bottom right: Lincoln Park pool. source: Chattanooga Times, July 28, 1937 , This series is funded by a UC Foundation community engagement grant and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga , and prepared by faculty and students of the UTC Department of History.