Family, friends, historians, and community members came together to dedicate the headstone of Sylvester Chauvin. After being born into slavery in 1860, he eventually became a star baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings.
ST. LOUIS — The life of a St. Louis baseball player and musician who prospered after being born into slavery was commemorated Monday by more than a dozen of his descendants at Calvary Cemetery.
Sylvester Chauvin I’s grave had been left unmarked since his death in 1919, but on Monday, it got a brand new headstone. The marker, said descendant Robin Proudie, ensures he will never be forgotten.
“They owned the bones, but not our soul. They owned the savagery, but not our humanity. They owned the degradation, but we are the hopes and dreams of those enslaved,†said Proudie.
Proudie has worked over the past year to form the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, after learning more about her ancestry through the university’s . The school’s project informing descendants of their ancestry is part of a national effort from the Jesuit and Catholic communities to acknowledge a troubled history as one of the largest slave-holding institutions in the country.
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Monday’s headstone dedication was funded by the , founded about 20 years ago by Illinois anesthesiologist Jeremy Krock, who also attended the ceremony.
“It’s a handsome marker. I like the polished gray granite and the deep chiseled letters, but it’s an uncomfortable marker to look at. It contains unforgivable and unforgettable history,†said Krock.
Krock’s organization, relying heavily on research from historian , has laid about 50 headstones on the unmarked graves of Black baseball players across the country.
Chauvin caught the organization’s attention when members learned he fielded ground balls and caught fly balls as a third baseman and right fielder for the St. Louis Black Stockings, one of the country’s early Black baseball clubs. He also played the trumpet, trombone and clarinet with ragtime bands in the St. Louis area, although his brother, Louis Chauvin, was the more well-known musician in the family. Sylvester Chauvin died at the age of 58.
“The hurt and the hate. We can never get to the healing with the hurt and the hate,†said  Safiyah Chauvin, who said she is a descendant of Sylvester Chauvin. “As that (truth) comes out, only then can America and the rest of the world who had enslaved people, heal.â€
Monday’s ceremony was orchestrated by local media icon Bernie Hayes, who read a proclamation from the mayor’s office at the ceremony.
The Chauvin ancestors were some of the enslaved people brought to Missouri from Maryland in the 1820s and 1830s. Through profits earned from a farm here, the Jesuits established St. Louis University and St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant.
Since 2019, the Jesuit community, through , has identified descendants of people enslaved by the Jesuits.
Proudie said she hopes her organization will help educate, preserve history, bring families together and commemorate their ancestors.
“We also have to tell our stories from our own perspective,†she said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Safiyah Chauvin's name.
Photos: DSLUE dedicates headstone to former Black baseball player
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

From left, Rev. Gregory T. Holley, Safiyah Chauvin and Robin Proudie, three direct descendants of Sylvester Chauvin I, stand around Sylvester's grave at Calvary Cemetery with flowers in hand to place on his new gravestone in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Sylvester, who was a baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings and a musician, was given a headstone on Monday by the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former black baseball player

Safiyah Chauvin, center, whose great-great-grandparents were the parents of Sylvester Chauvin I, joins others in laying flowers on his grave at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022.Â
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

From left, Sonjia Williams, Janelle Koonce, 2, and Koonce's grandmother Diane Holley walk up a hill at Calvary Cemetery to come to the headstone dedication ceremony of Sylvester Chauvin I, a former baseball player with the St. Louis Black Stockings, in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Williams is the oldest living female direct descendant of Chauvin and Holley's husband is a descendant of Chauvin. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Flowers lay out on the grave of Sylvester Chauvin I at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Sylvester, who was a baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings and a musician, was given a headstone on Monday by the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Aakhen Anu unpacks his djembe drum before performing at Calvary Cemetery for the headstone dedication of Sylvester Chauvin I, a former baseball player with the St. Louis Black Stockings, in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Robin Proudie, the founder of the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and a direct descendant of Sylvester Chauvin I, delivers a speech at the headstone dedication ceremony of Sylvester, a former baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings, at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Kunama Mtendaji pours libations for Sylvester Chauvin I, a Black former baseball player whose mother was enslaved by St. Louis University, during Chauvin's headstone dedication at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022.
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, a poet laureate of East St. Louis, delivers a poem he once wrote for Miles Davis at Calvary Cemetery during a headstone dedication ceremony for former Black baseball player Sylvester Chauvin I in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Redmond promised at the ceremony that he would soon be writing a poem in Chauvin's honor. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Robin Proudie, founder of the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and a descendant of Sylvester Chauvin, joins in a prayer during a headstone dedication for Sylvester, a former baseball player, at Calvary Cemetery on June 13, 2022.
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

A crowd of descendants of Sylvester Chauvin I, family members and their friends stand and talk in front of Chauvin's new gravestone at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Chauvin, who was a baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings and a musician, was given a headstone on Monday by the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Local media icon Bernie Hayes reads a proclamation from mayor Tishaura Jones declaring June 13 as Sylvester Chauvin I day at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Chauvin was a former baseball player for the St. Louis Black Stockings and a musician. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Damien Forbey bows his head during an opening prayer for the headstone dedication of Sylvester Chauvin I at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. Chauvin was a baseball player who played for the St. Louis Black Stockings, one of the country's first black baseball teams. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com
DSLUE honors former Black baseball player

Dr. Jeremy E. Brunson III, an expert on early Black baseball, delivers a speech honoring the life of Sylvester Chauvin I, who once played for the St. Louis Black Stockings, at Chauvin's headstone dedication at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday, June 13, 2022. The headstone dedication was led by the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved and dedicated by the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project. Photo by Zachary Clingenpeel, zclingenpeel@post-dispatch.com