KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Negro League Baseball Museum is celebrating a milestone Saturday: the 101st anniversary for the Negro Leagues.
To do so, the museum launched a new collegiate level course called "Negro Leagues 101."
As part of the course, the museum will launch a series of programs and lectures. Staff are working to get the course certified for college credit by the end of 2021.
“I don’t think there ever was a time that people didn’t want to know about the history of the Negro Leagues,” Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum said. “They just simply had no way to know about this rich history because it has never been fully documented in the pages of American History books. Our goal is to provide even greater access to this incredible of piece of baseball and Americana."
As part of the festivities, the museum also announced three new and rare additions to the museum.
The artifacts include a collection donated from the estate of actress/director, Penny Marshall, a rare Bud Fowler letter and the Negro National League financial journal belonging to Rube Foster.
"We believe the Foster financial journal to be the Holy Grail of Negro Leagues memorabilia", Kendrick said.
The collection provided by Marshall include signed photographs, baseball programs and other publications. In addition, the collection also has several unique Reece “Goose” Tatum posters as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Tatum was also a star in the Negro Leagues, most notably with the Indianapolis Clowns.
The NLMB is also developing digital content to include two of its traveling exhibitions, "Negro Leagues Beisbol", which celebrates the connection between the Negro Leagues and Spanish-speaking countries around the globe.
More information can be found on the NLBM website.
