CRANFORD — Cranford held a dedication ceremony for the bench created to honor the Cranford Dixie Giants, a semi-professional, all-Black baseball team with a strong winning record that played in Cranford in the early 20th century.
The Cranford Dixie Giants played baseball teams in towns in and outside of Union County, even traveling as far as Philadelphia to play. Since this was an amateur team, they were all able to play both all-White teams and all-Black teams, in spite of the segregation in sports that was prevalent in the early 1900s. However, since they were not a professional team, they would have to seek out their own games, as they did not have a set schedule.
Ernest Tyree, born in Virginia somewhere between 1882 and 1885, was the manager of the Cranford Dixie Giants. Mr. Tyree moved to Cranford in the early 1900s and worked as a chef for ThomasSperry,whowastheco-founder of S&H Green Stamps. Mr. Sperry sponsored Mr. Tyree’s culinary education in New York, and after completing his training, Mr.Tyree was Mr. Sperry’s chef until the latter’s death in 1913. Mr. Tyree then opened his own catering business and catered all around Cranford, as well as managing the team until its last known game in 1931. In a time of racial segregation, Mr. Tyree was able to impact both the culinary and sports fields.
Cranford High School’s research into the Cranford Dixie Giants began two years ago in Robert Ciarrocca’s sports literature class and was aided by library media specialist Christine Szeluga. Upon learning about the team through their library research, the students reached out to the Cranford Historical Society for more information, and contacted the mayor and township committee with a request to honor the team with a bench.
More recently, Cranford High School studentsfromJustinCorazza’sfilmclass have been conducting research on the Cranford Dixie Giants over the last few months, using resources from theWolfe Library, Learning Commons at Cranford High School and the Cranford Historical Society. Their research is going towards a documentary that the class is creating about the team and its impact on Cranford’s history, which will be completed in the coming weeks.
Victor Barry, the Cranford Historical Society’s archives curator, aided the Cranford High School film students in their research by sending them a photo and two archived articles about the Cranford Dixie Giants and was interviewed in their documentary.
Despite the fact that Cranford had a larger Black population 100 years ago than it does today, Mr. Barry was still surprised at how much was recorded about the team, although it was difficult to dig up the few documents about the team and Mr.Tyree. More so, Mr. Barry was surprised that Cranford, during an era that predates Jackie Robinson, was so invested in the Cranford Dixie Giants.
“There was considerable interest throughout the town about the Dixie Giants,” Mr. Barry said.
The ceremony for the bench was held at the corner of Elizabeth Avenue and North Union Avenue in Cranford, which was where the team would presumably play and practice.
Much of Mr. Tyree’s family were in attendance at the ceremony. Mr.Tyree’s great-great grandson and his family live in the home that Mr. Tyree’s family bought in 1907. The house was used as the headquarters of the Cranford Dixie Giants.
Mayor BrianAndrews, Susan Ritter, CranfordPublicSchools’LanguageArts supervisor; Ms. Szeluga, and student Daniel Argasinski spoke at the ceremony.
Cranford High School students William O’Keefe and Daniel Argasinski were honored at the ceremony.William workedwithMr.Corazza,Mr.Ciarrocca and Ms. Szeluga for the research and documentary, while Daniel worked alongside woodshop teacher David Martinez to create the bench.
“Now with this bench here, people will be able to research more about what happened here and learn more about Cranford’s rich history,” Daniel said.
The ceremony concluded with a ribbon cutting.
Ms. Szeluga said, “Today, as we honor the legacy of the Cranford Dixie Giants, we also celebrate the power of education and community.”
