Join correspondent Tom Wilmer for a visit with Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Back in the latter 19th century, African American athletes often played on baseball teams alongside whites. Segregation took an ugly turn in the dawning days of the 20th century and black players were barred through Jim Crow laws.
Undaunted, black teams were formed across America. The first organized league structure was conceived in Kansas City in 1920, and thus was born the Negro National League, followed by eastern and southern leagues.
The decline of the Negro Leagues began in 1945 when the Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Jackie Robinson, a player for the Kansas City Monarchs.
The Bob Kendricks interview--previously broadcast on NPR affiliate KCBX and first posted as a Journeys podcast February 10, 2016-- is shared again in honor of Black History Month as "best-of-the-best" Journeys of Discovery show spanning the past 33 years.
Support for Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer is provided by Nashville's Big Back Yard economic initiative focused on rural communities in the southwest quarter of Tennessee and the Shoals Region of Northern Alabama.
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