William Edward White (October 1860 – March 29, 1937) was a 19th-century American baseball player.

He played as a substitute in one professional baseball game for the Providence Grays of the National League, on June 21, 1879.

[1] Work by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) suggests that he may have been the first African-American to play major league baseball, predating the longer careers of Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Weldy Walker by five years, and Jackie Robinson by 68 years.

University records give Milner as the student's birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 census was a nine-year-old mulatto boy who was one of three children living with his mother Hannah.

If the research by SABR is correct, then William White was not only the first black player in the major leagues, but may also have been the only former slave.