The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Frank Robinson becoming Major League Baseball’s first African American manager with a new exhibit highlighting the brilliant minds who shaped Black baseball but never got their chance in the majors.
A special “Leaders & Innovators” exhibit will open to the public on May 25, and run through the World Series in late fall. Museum officials unveiled the initiative’s new logo at a ceremony attended by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County Executive Frank White.
“For years, the primary focus, as it relates to the Negro Leagues, has been on the courageous athletes who overcame tremendous social adversity to play the game they loved,” said NLBM President Bob Kendrick. “It is important that we elevate the awareness of the brilliant baseball minds that would have assuredly been great managers had those doors opened.”
The new logo, designed by graphic artist Lorinzo Dixon, showcases three game-changing innovations that originated in the Negro Leagues:
- Batting helmets: Negro Leagues star Willie “El Diablo” Wells became the first professional player to wear protective headgear after being knocked unconscious by a pitch in 1936. Despite doctor’s orders to rest, Wells returned wearing a modified construction hard hat.
- Shin guards: John “Bud” Fowler, the first known Black professional baseball player, fashioned wooden slats to protect his shins from racist opponents who deliberately spiked him – years before MLB catchers adopted similar protection.
- Night baseball: Kansas City Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson mortgaged everything he owned in 1929 to commission portable light towers. The Monarchs played their first night game on April 28, 1930 – five years before the Cincinnati Reds hosted MLB’s first night game.
“He wasn’t doing it just to be innovative. He was doing it for survival,” Kendrick said of Wilkinson’s night baseball innovation. “Night baseball became even bigger than Sunday games, and Sunday games were so popular that Black churches would move their service time up, which we all know how big of a deal that is.”
County Executive Frank White, who had his number 20 retired by the Kansas City Royals, spoke about his personal connection to Robinson, whose 50th anniversary as MLB’s first Black manager inspired the exhibit.
“In 1973 when I got called from the minor leagues, my first game was in Baltimore, and Frank played for Baltimore,” White said. “He was my favorite player, before he became a manager, and I got to tell him that.”
The exhibit will highlight Negro League managers like Vic Harris, who guided the Homestead Grays to seven Negro National League pennants but received little support for Hall of Fame induction.
No managers from the Negro Leagues are currently enshrined in Cooperstown. Rube Foster and Buck O’Neil, both outstanding managers, were inducted into the Hall of Fame as contributors rather than for their managerial achievements.
Mayor Lucas emphasized how the museum preserves crucial history during the unveiling ceremony.
“To talk about all that we have navigated and persevered as Black people is something that is special, that is vital and that everyone should be doing,” Lucas said.
Lucas reflected on the barriers broken by Black leaders like Robinson.
“When I was a boy in this city and in this country, there were still people who got that question about Blacks in leadership positions,” Lucas said. “Can a Black man manage a baseball team? Can a Black man be president? Can a Black man be mayor? Can a Black woman lead in all of these categories? And it was people like Frank Robinson who helped kick down doors for all of us.”
The exhibit will also feature pioneering women of the Negro Leagues, including three who competed against men in the 1950s: Toni Stone, Connie Morgan, and Mamie “Peanut” Johnson.
Female executives and owners like Hilda Bolden, Minnie Forbes, Effa Manley, and Olivia Taylor will be highlighted for their leadership roles that preceded similar opportunities in Major League Baseball.
The exhibit will explore how Negro Leagues teams helped globalize baseball by:
- Barnstorming into Canada.
- Being the first Americans to play in many Spanish-speaking countries.
- Taking professional baseball to Japan in 1927, seven years before Babe Ruth’s famous tour.
“Our game is a global game,” Kendrick said. “At the heart of that globalization were the Negro Leagues. They helped make the game the global game that it is today.”
Admission to the “Leaders & Innovators” exhibit will be included with regular museum admission. The museum’s annual Hall of Game celebration, scheduled for September 27, will also carry the “Leaders & Innovators” theme.
Hours for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum are Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit nlbm.com
