John Britton (baseball)
Negro League Baseball player
John A. Britton Jr. (April 21, 1919 – December 2, 1990) was an American professional baseball third baseman in the Negro leagues and in the Japanese Pacific League. He played from 1940 to 1953, playing with the St. Louis–New Orleans Stars, Chicago American Giants, Cincinnati/Indianapolis Clowns, Birmingham Black Barons, and Hankyu Braves. During the 1944 Negro World Series, Britton was injured in a car accident, along with Tommy Sampson, Pepper Bassett, and Leandy Young. Britton suffered a dislocated left hand. Britton and Jimmy Newberry were the first African-Americans to play on a Japanese baseball team.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Britton (baseball)” is negro League Baseball player. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Britton and baseball, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “negro League Baseball player” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6223246. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1990, 1940 and 1953.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “John Britton (baseball)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow John Britton (baseball) primary sources, John Britton (baseball) archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Britton (baseball)”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “John Britton (baseball)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.