The Kansas City Monarchs and America's National Pastime

2020 marked two major milestones for baseball: the Negro Leagues celebrated their 100th anniversary and Major League Baseball merged statistics of these African American players with those of the major league. The history of Negro League baseball in America mirrors the racial strife experienced by African Americans in society. It was plagued by discrimination, racism, and inequity, while its athletes were celebrated for their resiliency, professionalism, and athleticism. The Kansas City Monarchs barnstormed across Kansas and the region to play more than 400 games between 1920 and 1957 against local towns. This talk sheds new light on this sports history and the history of baseball in Kansas.

Phil S. Dixon is a road warrior, a veracious interviewer, a tireless researcher and writer who has interviewed over 500 players, wives and their offspring for a unique perspective of the American and Negro League baseball experience, works for which he won a SABR MacMillan Award (Society of American Baseball Researchers) for his excellence in historical research. He is best known for his 10 non-fiction books including “The Negro Baseball Leagues A Photographs History, 1867-1955,” a Casey Award winner as the best baseball book of the year in 1992.