NLBM curator gives lecture

By: Amanda Bloomer
Contributing Writer

Spring, a time of renewal and, for baseball fans, spring training, a time when even the Cubs have the initial promise of a new season—which they will inevitably blow. In the United States, baseball has proven to be a sport after our own hearts. It has lasted more than a century as a universal source of entertainment and athleticism. America’s favorite pastime has a long history of crossing boundaries and uniting people, which makes it ripe for historical and sociological examination. This is especially true in the case of African-Americans in baseball as Monmouth College alumnus and current Deputy Director/ Curator of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM), Raymond Doswell, could tell you.

Doswell was invited to return to his alma mater as a guest of Simon Cordery’s [associate professor of history] History of Sports class. The course theme was baseball, with a focus on black baseball and the Negro Leagues; the class read a couple of books pertaining to these topics in anticipation of Doswell’s visit. Doswell graduated from Monmouth College in 1991 with a history degree. He attended graduate school at the University of California-Riverside. In 1995, he became the first curator of the NLBM. A professed Cardinals fan, more of a matter of geography than anything else – he was born and raised in East St. Louis, Ill. –, Doswell defines his relationship to baseball as a “dispassionate interest.” He considers this to be an advantage because it allows him to take a more objective view of the subject. For a long time, the only material available about black baseball was written by “fans, sportswriters and other people who like the game” which is valuable but offers very little as far as historical analysis. The NLBM is trying “to do more scholarly, historical work with it.” Doswell says it can be just as neglectful to get caught up in the history and forget to celebrate the athlete, but that it is important to remember that the NLBM was founded as the African-American response to segregation in the Major Leagues.

The NLBM was founded in Kansas City, Mo., in 1990. It sponsored a popular traveling exhibit in its early years, and later moved to a temporary space. In 1997, the museum found a permanent home in the 18th and Vine historic district.

Appropriately enough, the museum is located right around the corner from the YMCA where the NLBM got its start in 1920. In addition to its many exhibits, the museum also sponsors a number of community youth outreach programs; and, for all of you aspiring educators, the NLBM also provides an online resource for teachers which includes everything you would need for a unit on black baseball.

Doswell’s presentation was held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28 in the Highlander Room and was open to the public. He managed to cover a hundred years of black baseball by using what he called “the four T’s”: times, towns, teams, and talent. It was an accelerated course in the basics. He mentioned some names that you probably know – Satchel Paige, Willie Mayes, Jackie Robinson—anyone? – and others that you may not, but should Google (Effa Manley). Doswell supplemented his speech with slides of artwork from the museum’s “Shades of Greatness” exhibit—artists’ renderings of various themes, individuals, and moments in the history of the Negro Leagues—one of the many programs NLBM sponsors to generate awareness about black baseball. Doswell also included a number of amusing anecdotes he has collected during his time at the museum. One of his favorites came from a newspaper clipping announcing a game between a black baseball team and a local Ku Klux Klan lodge (No. 6, specifically). Nothing bad was reported to have come out of the encounter; it is merely another example of the remarkable place black baseball occupied in a country still divided by racial tensions.

If interested in learning more about the history of black baseball, visit the NLBM website (nlbm.com) or pay a visit to the museum’s Kansas City headquarters.