Leeds Rugby Foundation Celebrate Black History Month

Leeds Rhinos Foundation are supporting our partner organisation Black Health Initiative Leeds to promote the campaign ‘Cancer does not discriminate’ during Black History Month. To raise awareness particularly of Prostate cancer within the Black Minority Ethnic communities of Leeds we will be releasing articles throughout October which celebrate the diversity of Leeds based rugby players from past to present.

Black men are more likely to get prostate cancer than men of other ethnic backgrounds. In the UK, about 1 in 4 Black men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives compared to 1 in 8 for men from alternative heritage. We are working with Black Health Initiative to encourage men to attend ‘Health Checks’ throughout the City.
 
Please see the poster at the end of this article for more information on what is available during Black History Month. To start our celebration of Black Heritage Leeds based rugby players below is an article on Lucius Banks which we hope you find interesting.
 
Lucius Banks – The first black heritage player in Leeds Rugby?
 
Since 1895, the often turbulent history of rugby league football has been relatively well chronicled. Historians have written a collection of books covering the great split, the competitions, clubs and players and their records.
 
One neglected area, though, for a sport that, rightly, prides itself on multi-cultural participation, is due recognition for the first black player to play professionally.
Conventional wisdom has it that this was James Peters, born in Salford in 1879. Peters had a hard life, his Jamaican father, George, had been mauled to death in a lion’s training cage when he was working at a circus.
His mother, Hannah Gough from Wem in Shropshire, then abandoned young James and he found himself in Fegan’s orphanage in Southwark and later the Little Wanderers’ Home in Greenwich. Peters worked in printing, a job that took him to Bristol where he played rugby union for the local club.
He later moved to Plymouth and made two successful appearances for England. But his brief international career was cut short in a cruel fashion when he was dropped by the national side, who gave in to South Africa’s objection to playing against a black man.
His union club career was also cut short by politics, when he was suspended for accepting payment for playing for Devon.
Very bitter at his treatment, Peters moved back to the North West and at 34-years-old was accepted by the Barrow Northern Union club, playing for them in 1913-14 season and kicking nine goals. He moved from there to St Helens the following year, subsequently retiring.
 
It’s a fascinating story all right, but not of the first black player to play the sport.
A recent find of bound Hunslet Northern Union programmes from the 1911-12 season have unearthed another claim. The old brittle documents are fascinating primary sources that give a unique insight into the life of an Edwardian Northern Union club.
The match day notes for the game against York on 27 January 1912 announce the signing of Lucius Banks, a black American cavalryman, who was spotted playing US football by a Hunslet committee-man on a business trip to New York. The Parksiders bought Banks out of the military and paid for his voyage to England to play in the myrtle and flame. He had a successful debut, scoring a try thanks to a superb pass from the experienced, brilliant Billy Batten.
The Parkside Echo issued for the next home match against Wakefield Trinity, in which Banks once again made an appearance on the wing, commented: “L Banks gave every satisfaction to our supporters in his first attempt to play Northern Union football, and showed plainly that as soon as he gets thoroughly conversant with the game, he will be strong in both attack and defence.”
 
How times have changed are illustrated by the Leeds newspapers of the time who had criticised the club for signing an international player, commenting that they should be giving more opportunities to local youngsters and not sign novelty players to merely create publicity.
Banks went on to play a handful of first team games but spent most of his brief career in the second team and eventually his great Hunslet adventure simply ground to a halt.
The harsh Yorkshire winter and the bleak industrial surroundings became too much for the young American to cope with, so he severed his connection and sailed home.
The Parkside Echo for 26 December 1912 read: “L Banks is returning to America on December 31, and we know you will all join with us in wishing him a pleasant journey and every success in the future.” And so ended the brief career of Lucius Banks, the first black man to play Northern Union Rugby Football. Les Hoole