Negro League Memories Kept Alive In Kansas City

Although Satchel Paige advised against it, now’s the time to take a look back.

Next weekend marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the Negro National League, and 214 of the 270 or so surviving players are expected in Kansas City to celebrate the brand of baseball that captivated black America until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues in 1947.

Those memories of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are being kept alive in a crowded museum in a historic district of the city.

It was here at 18th and Vine that some of the greatest jazz was played into the wee hours. It is but blocks from Municipal Stadium, where the Kansas City Monarchs dominated the Negro National League, and where all the players knew to go after the game.

And it is just down the street at the Paseo YMCA where Rube Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants, met with owners of other independent black teams to form the Negro National League in 1920.

“Blacks had played baseball since the 1800s; the Monarchs were barnstorming before this,” said Raymond Doswell, curator of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “But the founding of the Negro National League was the first official corporate structure. It was modeled after the major leagues.

“With this museum, black players have finally realized their dream of seeing this history preserved.”

The Negro National League had eight teams - the American Giants from Chicago, the Dayton Marcos, the Detroit Stars, the Indianapolis ABCs, the Monarchs, the St. Louis Giants and a traveling Cuban team, the Stars.

The Eastern Colored League was formed in 1923, and the Monarchs defeated the Philadelphia Hilldales in the first black World Series in 1924. The Hilldales beat the Monarchs the next year.

Foster died in 1930, though, and black baseball lost its structure. Leagues were formed and broke up quickly. But their players were some of the best around - players like Paige, who was famous for saying “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.”

When Branch Rickey signed Robinson, it opened the door for all the great black players to play in the majors. Black baseball faded from the scene by 1960.

Photographs at the museum clearly show what a cultural phenomenon the game was in the black community, with packed stadiums on Sunday afternoons.

“For the black community, Negro League baseball was the third-largest industry,” Doswell said. “It was very lucrative. It was something that everybody could rally around. Church services on Sunday when baseball was in town were closed early. They were speeded up. It is a testament to how baseball relates to Americana.”

The players were paid well by segregated-America standards.

“Oh, yes, we were the celebrities back then,” said Buck O’Neil, a power-hitting first baseman for the Monarchs, whose eyes go distant when he remembers those late nights at 18th and Vine.

Memories like O’Neil’s would soon be gone if not for the museum.

“One thing to keep in mind,” Doswell said, “is that Negro League artifacts have become major collectibles on the open market. That’s one of the things we’re competing against. Photographs are the most collectible.

“We want the players to think of us. We’re trying to cultivate a relationship with them so that they leave (artifacts) with us or at least not forget us when they’re gone.”

The museum will use the anniversary weekend to begin a campaign to raise $2 million to expand its exhibit space and create space for research.

“The history is so rich here,” Doswell said. “The Monarchs had offices across the street. The National Negro League was formed at the Paseo YMCA. The International Jazz Hall of Fame is here. We want to keep all these entities together.

“We are not a Hall of Fame. We are the central repository for the history of the Negro leagues.”