Carl Russell "The Kid" Long (1935-2015)

Born May 9, 1935, in Rock Hill, Carl Russell Long was one of the first African Americans to integrate a minor league baseball team in North Carolina when he played a season for the Kinston Eagles of the Class B Carolina League in 1956.

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Long developed his baseball skills as a child playing street ball in his Boyd Hill neighborhood and playing catch with future major league star Dusty Rhodes after Rock Hill Chiefs games. At the age of 16 he was signed by the Negro Leagues Nashville Stars (formerly the Philadelphia Stars) and from 1952 to 1953 played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Southern League. In 1954 he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates and began his career in their farm system playing for the St. Jean Canadians of the Class C Provincial League. Long was assigned to other minor league teams before being sent to Kinston in 1956 where he became the first African American on this otherwise all-white team. Despite suffering the hostility and indignities visited upon Black players who were the first to integrate organized baseball, he was selected for the Carolina League All-Star team for his outstanding performance that season. He continued to play professional ball until a shoulder injury ended his baseball career in early 1958.

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After baseball, Long lived briefly in Detroit before settling in Kinston where he became the first Black deputy sheriff in Lenoir County and later the first Black detective for the Kinston Police Department. He also worked for Trailways, making him one of the first African American commercial bus drivers in that region of North Carolina.

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Carl “The Kid” Long passed away on January 12, 2015, at the age of 79.