George Alexander Sweatt (1893-1983) was born and raised in Humboldt, Kansas. Growing up in a small town, his school was not segregated like others at the time. George always loved baseball, following in his uncles' footsteps and playing for his school and local teams. Intelligent and kind, he enrolled in Kansas State Normal, Emporia to become a teacher. While he passed his teaching certification test, George didn't finish the program due to prolonged illness. He worked odd jobs for a couple of years, as an auto repairman, at a barbershop, and for a cement plant. He followed friends to Peoria, Illinois to work at another plant, but was soon called back to Kansas as he and other black men were drafted for service in the first World War.
Shipped off to France as part of the 816th Pioneer Infantry, George's regiment was one of the many black regiments dealing with the aftermath of the war, having arrived just before the war ended in 1918. They were tasked with the hard labor of locating, recovering, and burying the bodies of fallen American soldiers in a French cemetery. Stationed for a year, George and the 816th were discharged in 1919 and returned home that fall.
Upon returning home, George decided to continue his education, this time at the State Manual Training Normal school in Pittsburg, Kansas. He studied from spring 1920 to 1922, all the while competing in three sports, track, football, and basketball. George was the first black student to letter in a sport at the university.
George married his lifelong partner, Evelyn Groomer, in 1921 and began playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in the same year. His first season with the Monarchs saw him as a third baseman. Following that season, both George and his wife completed their degrees, George continuing to play sports at SMTN all the while, and were hired to teach at Cleveland School in Coffeyville, Kansas. Returning as a second baseman in 1922, George "The Teacher" Sweatt found a way to balance teaching and playing baseball.
George played for the Monarchs through the 1925 season positioned at center field. His team won the first ever Negro World Series in 1924 and competed in the 1925 series, though they lost. Afterward, George was traded to the Chicago American Giants. He and Evelyn moved to Chicago, able to as they lost their teaching jobs for testifying in a court case, Thurman-Watts vs Board, to allow black students to be enrolled at the Junior High School.
Reporting to Rube Foster, creator of the Negro Leagues, in 1926, George and the Giants won the next two World Series. During this time, George worked as a night watchman for the baseball field while his wife sewed at a factory. George's professional baseball career ended before the 1928 season when he was offered to sign that year's contract with no raise. Refusing, George stopped playing for the Giants and took a full-time position as a postman for the Chicago Post Office.
George and Evelyn lived in Chicago, raising their son and housing friends, until his retirement in 1957. After travelling and vacations, he and his wife moved to Los Angeles to be closer to their son. They lived out the rest of their days there.
George was a baseball player, World War I veteran, teacher, postman, and much more. He contributed to his community wherever he went, renting spaces in their house to friends, fixing up apartments, coaching Little League, serving as a Scoutmaster, and being elected president of the Old Tyme Ball Players Club.
