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| Kansas City Monarchs, 1924 courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |
The Pride and Passion exhibition is on display on the second floor of the Ned R. McWherter Library from
Sept. 8 until Oct. 16, 2009. The University Libraries was one of a few U. S. libraries
selected to display the exhibition, which is based upon material on permanent display
at the National Baseball Hall of fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. For more
information please contact Mr. Tom Mendina, Assistant to the Dean of University Libraries
for Public Programming at 901-678-4310 or tmendina@memphis.edu.
Baseball is one of America's central institutions, and it has long reflected the complicated
and painful history of race in the United States. "Pride and Passion" tells the story
of black baseball players in the U.S. over the past century and a half. Although many
blacks played baseball with whites in the nineteenth century as amateurs and also
played on minor league teams through the 1880s, black players were not allowed to
compete with whites when major league baseball was created in the mid 1890s. To counter
this discrimination, they organized teams made up entirely of black players and formed
leagues that were known collectively as the Negro Leagues. The Negro Leagues had their
highest level of success in the 1940s, and they continued into the 1960s, with the
last team disbanding in 1961. When Jackie Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers
in 1945, though, integration in baseball began a slow and uneven path to the integrated
status of modern day teams, and all-black teams began to disappear.
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| East Squad from 1939 East-West All Star Game, courtesy of the National Baseball Hall
of Fame and Museum
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The story of African-Americans in baseball is a remarkable and fascinating slice
of American history. It parallels the failures of the greater American society in
solving the racial problems resulting from slavery, the Civil War and the confusion
of Reconstruction. Baseball was played on Southern plantations as far back as the
1850s, and a quote from the New York Clipper newspaper in 1869 tells of a game between
the leading black and white baseball teams in Philadelphia. Although early baseball
was segregated for the most part, there are many examples of blacks and whites playing
the game together. However, racial prejudice escalated in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, and baseball reflected this development in the larger society. The captain
of the leading black team in Philadelphia was murdered in riots that occurred on the
first day black men were legally allowed to vote in October, 1871. Black players on
the rare integrated teams, such as the Toledo Blue Stockings, were sometimes threatened
by people in the stands and by players on opposing teams. When the National League
was founded in 1883, blacks were shut out, and the black players on the Toledo team
in the mid 1880s were the last to play on an integrated team until Jackie Robinson
in 1947. This early baseball history will be both a revelation and a surprise to most
viewers of the traveling exhibit, and it adds a fascinating dimension to late 19th
century U.S. history. The traveling exhibition content is arranged in six thematic
sections, a breakdown that separates the story into cohesive chronological sections:
- Finding a Way in Hard Times (1860-1887)
- Barnstorming on the Open Road (1887-1919)
- Separate Leagues, Parallel Lives (1920-1932)
- Paving the Way to Integration (1933-1946)
- Signposts for Opportunity (1947-1959)
- Baseball's Post-Integration Era (1959-present)
Through cultural timelines of American history and baseball history which will be
part of the exhibit and also posted at the "Pride and Passion" website, visitors will
be able to place the African American baseball story into the larger context of American
history and see how it intersects with major events such as the Dred Scott Decision,
the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, Jim Crow laws,
Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Great Migration to the North, Brown vs. the Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and many more.
PUBLIC PROGAMMING ACCOMPANYING THE PRIDE AND PASSION EXHIBITION
The "Pride and Passion" exhibition in the McWherter Library will be accompanied by
four public programs (public invited, no admission fee):
Sept. 9, 12 - 1:30: Mr. Larry Lester, co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City,
Missouri is co- chairman of the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American
Baseball Research. He is chairman of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference with
provides a venue for presentation of scholarly papers and academic research. Author
of seven books and more than 100 publications Mr. Lester will talk about the meaning
of baseball for African-Americans and for American society in general and engage in
discussion with the audience afterwards.
Sept. 10, 12 - 1:30: Professors John Haddock and Steven Ross of the University of of Memphis faculty will
show their award-winning documentary about the Negro League Memphis Red Sox, "Black
Diamonds, Blues City." The film had several invited showings in various cities and
was shown on public television in many major American cities. Professors Haddock and
Ross and Mr. Lester will discuss the film, focusing upon local teams in the former
Negro Leagues.
Sept. 23, 12 - 1:30: Mr. Reggie Williams, Vice President for Public Relations, the Memphis Redbirds will
show his award-winning film, "Memories of the Negro Leagues: A Conversation with Joe
Scott," a documentary about the declining number of African-Americans playing baseball
and the experiences of Mr. Scott with some of the legendary Negro League ballplayers.
Oct. 8, 11:30 - 1:30: Ms. Anna Wade, Director of Museum Education, National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum,
Cooperstown, New York. Ms. Wade will offer an interactive videoconference with audience
participation from the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. The Pride and Passion
videoconference is a dynamic two hour program illustrating how baseball reflected
and led critical social shifts in American history from the Civil War to the modern-day
Civil Rights movement. Beginning with the origin of the Negro leagues to Jackie Robinson's
integration of Major League Baseball in 1947, untold stories of honor, courage, and
perseverance are brought to life through interactive multicultural lessons spanning
several subject areas.
"Pride & Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience" is a traveling exhibition
for libraries organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown,
New York, and the American Library Association Public Program Office, Chicago. The
traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name on permanent display
at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "Pride & Passion: The African-American
Baseball Experience" has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities: Great Ideas Brought to Life. Curator: Erik M. Strohl, Senior Director
of Exhibitions and Collections, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown,
New York. Tour Coordination: American Library Association, Public Programs Office,
Chicago, Illinois.
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