Baseball and
Integration
Expedition.

After departing from Atlanta to Birmingham, we ran into less traffic than expected, and when we reached Birmingham with extra time to spare before the Rickwood Game, we decided to go to the Negro Southern League Museum. Once we walked in, the staff notified us that they would be closing early as they were going to the Rickwood Game to introduce some former Negro League players.

One hour turned out to be the perfect amount of time as we were able to see all of the exhibits without having to rush, while also avoiding a long wait before the Rickwood Game. The museum focuses specifically on the Negro Southern League, which served as an important part of Black professional baseball and helped develop many players who would later compete in the Negro Leagues. One of the players featured most prominently throughout the museum is Willie Mays, who began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons before eventually becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. Although much smaller than the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, the museum provided valuable background information and introduced many of the topics that would continue to appear throughout the rest of the trip.

The Rickwood Game took place at Rickwood Field, the oldest ballpark in the United States, which opened in 1910. While the stadium has hosted many notable players and teams throughout its history, it is perhaps best known as the longtime home of the Birmingham Black Barons, one of the most successful franchises in Negro League baseball. The game is held each year to celebrate that history, with both teams wearing throwback uniforms, a jazz band performing outside the stadium and vintage automobiles displayed near the entrance. Seeing Rickwood Field filled with fans once again made it easier to appreciate the important role the stadium played in Negro League baseball and the generations of players who competed there before the integration of Major League Baseball.

Once the Rickwood Game ended, we decided to make a stop in Oxford, Mississippi, which was very close to our route to Memphis. As we walked onto the campus of Ole Miss, we found the statue for James Meredith, the first Black student to integrate the university in 1962. To put it in perspective, the MLB color barrier had been broken for 15 years at that point.

Once we arrived at the Lorraine Motel, my perspective on Dr. King's assassination was immediately shattered. What happened seems so big in your mind, but it was a relatively small two-story motel. It felt strange that such a significant event in American history had taken place at such an ordinary location. Standing across the street and looking at the balcony where Dr. King was standing made the event feel much more real than it ever had while reading about it in a textbook or watching a documentary.

One unexpected part of the museum was an exhibit on school integration that included photographs from Sturgis, Kentucky, my father's hometown. The exhibit showed scenes similar to those I had previously studied in places such as Little Rock, including the presence of National Guard troops during integration efforts. My grandfather was a student in Sturgis during that time, and seeing his hometown included in the exhibit made me realize that these historical events were much closer to my own family's experiences than I had previously understood.

Unlike many of the sites we visited during the trip, Little Rock Central High School is still a functioning high school today. As we approached the campus, one of the first things we noticed was a restored gas station from the 1950s that now serves as part of the National Park site. The school itself was much larger and more impressive than I had expected, which helped me understand why it was considered one of the premier high schools in the country when it opened.

After touring the visitor center and learning more about the experiences of the Little Rock Nine, we walked up the same front steps that the students had climbed in 1957. Standing in front of the school made it easier to understand the challenges they faced and the national attention that surrounded their decision to attend Central High. While the school remains an impressive building, it is impossible to separate it from the events that took place there and the role it played in the broader civil rights movement.

During our visit, I learned about Silas Hunt, who integrated the University of Arkansas in 1948 and became the first Black student admitted to a predominantly white university in the South. His achievement came one year after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball and nine years before the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School. Despite the significance of his accomplishment, Hunt is not nearly as well-known as some of the other figures associated with school integration, which made his story particularly interesting to learn about.

On our way to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a large mural featuring Buck O'Neil, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and several other notable players caught our attention. After stopping to learn more about the site, we discovered that the Paseo YMCA was where the Negro National League was founded in 1920. Given the importance of the Negro Leagues to both my research project and the purpose of the trip, it ended up being a valuable stop and provided additional context before we arrived at the museum.

Being the reason we planned this trip in the first place, I was quite excited to finally visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. During my AP African American Studies research project on Hank Aaron and the integration of Major League Baseball, I had frequently encountered Bob Kendrick through interviews, presentations and articles, which made meeting him one of my primary goals for the trip. Although I had reached out before leaving Atlanta and never received a response, I was still hopeful that I might have an opportunity to speak with him while visiting the museum.

Shortly after we entered the museum, we noticed Kendrick speaking to a group of visitors near the entrance and decided to stop and listen. Once the presentation ended and the rest of the group dispersed, we introduced ourselves and explained my research project, the purpose of the trip and the various sites we had visited on our way to Kansas City. What I expected to be a brief conversation turned into a discussion that lasted nearly thirty minutes and covered many of the topics that had inspired the trip in the first place.

After speaking with Kendrick, we began making our way through the museum. One of the first exhibits was a film narrated by James Earl Jones that provided an overview of the Negro Leagues and the circumstances that led to their creation. As we continued through the exhibits, I was struck by how much attention was given not only to the challenges that Negro League players faced, but also to the accomplishments of the players, teams and communities that built the leagues into a successful institution. Rather than focusing entirely on discrimination and segregation, the museum also highlighted the talent, innovation and perseverance that allowed the Negro Leagues to thrive for decades.

Before leaving the museum, Bob Kendrick strongly recommended that we visit Gates Bar-B-Q, explaining that no trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was complete without it. Since trying Kansas City barbecue had already been one of the things I was most looking forward to about the trip, it did not take much convincing. Founded in 1946, Gates has been a Kansas City institution for decades and has served generations of local residents and visitors alike. After spending the morning learning about the history of the Negro Leagues, it seemed like an appropriate way to experience another part of Kansas City's history and culture. Fortunately, the food lived up to the recommendation.

I have always found it interesting that Brown v. Board of Education originated in Kansas rather than in one of the Deep South states that are often associated with segregation. It serves as a reminder that racism and segregation were not just Southern issues, but rather national ones. By taking a one-hour detour to visit Monroe Elementary I was able to get another physical representation of ordinary people making difficult decisions that ultimately changed the course of history. Standing outside the school, I was reminded that many of the most important moments in the civil rights movement began with individuals willing to challenge systems that others simply accepted.

After visiting Ole Miss and the University of Arkansas earlier in the trip, it seemed only fitting to stop at the University of Kansas as well. Lawrence was directly on our route from Topeka back to Kansas City, and since Kansas played such an important role in the history of school integration through Brown v. Board of Education, we thought it would be worthwhile to spend some time on campus. One of the places we had hoped to visit was the "Fully Integrated" exhibit inside the Kansas Memorial Union, which explores the university's history with integration and civil rights. Unfortunately, our unplanned stops earlier in the day put us behind schedule, and by the time we arrived, the exhibit had already closed.

Although we were unable to visit the exhibit, we still spent some time walking around campus and exploring the surrounding area. The campus felt noticeably different from the SEC schools that I am more familiar with in the Southeast, and it was interesting to see another type of college environment while traveling.

One thing I wanted to learn more about was how the Negro Leagues came to an end and what happened to the players. As more Black athletes were signed by Major League teams, the Negro Leagues slowly lost many of their best players. With the top talent now playing in the majors, fewer fans attended games, and many teams struggled financially. Before visiting the museum, I had never really thought about what happened after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. I knew integration was an important step forward, but I had not considered the effect it had on the Negro Leagues themselves. The museum helped me understand that while opportunities expanded for individual players, one of the most important institutions in Black baseball was gradually disappearing.

Although most people associate Gateway Arch National Park with the Arch itself, one of the places I was most interested in visiting was the Old Courthouse. The courthouse played an important role in the history of Dred Scott, who first sued for his freedom there in the 1850s before his case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. The exhibits inside the building explain both the original trial and the Supreme Court decision that ultimately ruled against Scott and denied citizenship to African Americans.

One detail that stood out to me was that the Gateway Arch is clearly visible from several of the courthouse windows. While the Arch and the courthouse represent very different periods of American history, seeing both landmarks together was an interesting reminder of how many significant events have taken place in St. Louis. After spending much of the trip learning about figures such as Jackie Robinson, James Meredith and Martin Luther King Jr., visiting the site of the Dred Scott case provided additional context for many of the civil rights struggles that would follow in later generations.

Since the Cardinals were at home and the Cubs happened to be in town, attending a game at Busch Stadium seemed like an easy decision. Because the game was sold out by the time we started looking for tickets, we ended up purchasing seats near the top of the stadium in the left field corner. Despite being high up, the seats turned out to be excellent as they provided cover from both the sun and a passing rain shower during the game.

One of the more memorable moments occurred when a home run landed just a few rows below us and was immediately reviewed to determine whether it was fair or foul. During the replay shown on the stadium video board, we could clearly see ourselves sitting in the background of the shot. The play was ultimately ruled a fair ball, although from our angle we already knew the correct call. Later in the game, I also spent some time in one of the standing-room areas beyond the outfield where many of the most passionate fans had gathered. Being able to talk baseball with people from both fan bases and experience the atmosphere from a different part of the stadium ended up being one of the highlights of the evening.

After spending much of the trip visiting museums, historic sites and locations connected to civil rights history, attending a Major League Baseball game provided an opportunity to simply relax and enjoy an evening at the ballpark. The Cubs won 6–1, but the final score was not particularly important. More than anything, it was a chance to visit another historic stadium and end that portion of the trip with a baseball game.

As we made our way back toward Atlanta, we decided to make one final stop in Nashville. Earlier in the trip, the National Civil Rights Museum had highlighted the student sit-in movement that took place at the Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Nashville during 1960, and since the site was only a short detour from our route home, it seemed worthwhile to visit. Although the building was closed when we arrived, standing outside still provided an opportunity to reflect on the actions of the students who participated in the protests and the role they played in the broader civil rights movement.

Nashville also had important connections to Negro League baseball. During my visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, I learned about several Nashville-based teams, including the Elite Giants and the Stars, both of which played at Sulphur Dell. Originally built in the nineteenth century, Sulphur Dell served as an important baseball venue for generations before being demolished in 1969. Today, First Horizon Park sits on the same site and contains several tributes to the stadium and the teams that once played there. Although the ballpark itself is modern, it serves as another reminder of how much baseball history remains connected to places that are still part of everyday life.

By the time we returned home, we had traveled approximately 2,020 miles across five days and spent nearly twenty-nine hours in the car. Some days were devoted primarily to driving, while others were spent visiting museums, memorials, ballparks and historic sites. Looking back, the statistics themselves are not what I remember most. Instead, I remember the conversations, the people we met and the stories behind the places we visited.

As we drove back into Atlanta, I found myself thinking about how many of the topics we had explored throughout the week were connected to places much closer to home. Hank Aaron played in Atlanta, the Atlanta History Center preserves many of the stories we had spent the week discussing and baseball remains a significant part of the city's identity. The difference was that after spending five days traveling through the South and Midwest, I returned with a much deeper understanding of the people and events that helped shape those places and the country as a whole.