KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick fell in love with the story of the Negro Leagues 29 years ago, and he firmly believes the only reason a person wouldn’t share his wonder is that she or he hasn’t heard it.
So he’s out to make sure they do.
“What’s not to love about the story once you’re introduced to the story?” he said.
It’s a question at the heart of the museum’s Negro Leagues 101 campaign this summer. The campaign, which shares one fact about the Negro Leagues each day on the museum’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as the Major League Baseball website, began on June 25 and continues daily through the end of the MLB regular season on Oct. 3.
Not everyone can make it to Kansas City, where the museum sits just a stone’s throw from the Negro Leagues’ birthplace some 101 years ago inside the Paseo YMCA. So much of the leagues’ history lived within the memory of the late Buck O’Neil, the legendary first baseman and manager of the Kansas City Monarchs who founded the museum in 1990.
When O’Neil died in 2006, Kendrick said, many saw him as the last tie between that history and the museum.
‘One of Buck’s disciples’
Kendrick called himself “one of Buck O’Neil’s disciples.” And today, a great deal of O’Neil’s and the Negro Leagues’ entwined history now resides in Kendrick.
Kendrick said it’s a privilege to keep those stories alive.
“I don’t ever want these stories to die,” he said.
That’s where the Negro Leagues 101 campaign comes in: Its aim is to create more accessibility to these stories. Toward that end, Kendrick’s embraced the reach of social media. A group of MBA students who conducted a marketing case study on the museum told him he needed to be active on Twitter.
His reaction?
“Man, I don’t know anything about Twitter,” he said, chuckling at the memory.
But he listened, opened a Twitter account in 2011 and has been tweeting like a pro ever since. Kendrick was willing to adapt his approach, realizing he needed to share these stories in a different way now — one relatable to the next generation. The Negro Leagues Museum’s official account has 23,600 followers, and Kendrick has more than 44,200. Accordingly, Twitter is a key platform for delivering the Negro Leagues 101 campaign to a growing audience.
Kendrick launched his own SiriusXM podcast in April called “Black Diamonds.” When he was approached about the podcast, he told himself he was too busy ... but he eventually gave in, because he couldn’t turn down a national platform to do what he does best: tell the stories of the Negro Leagues.
“I think there was this false narrative out there that young people didn’t care about history — and I never, ever believed that,” Kendrick said. “But I do think it’s important how history is presented to them. It cannot just be history for history’s sake.
“The young people are too savvy for that, and so I’ve got to go to them — I can’t wait for them to come to me. I’ve got to go to them and introduce it to them in ways they can relate to. And I think we’ve been successful at that. We’ve just scratched the surface.”
The next generation
A driving force in that new engagement is Kiona Sinks, the museum’s community engagement manager since last September. The 26-year-old who oversees outreach and digital strategy for the NLBM has become a youthful voice in the story of the Negro Leagues.
Kendrick said her ability to connect with a younger audience has already made a difference.
“She’s been a breath of fresh air for this institution,” he said. “I think she’s kind of energized all of us with her youthful exuberance, but also a tremendous knowledge base. … She’s brought an acute understanding, and a deep-rooted passion, for what this history represents.
“That motivates her even more to want to share these stories to people who are her age, and that’s important as we continue to try and build that base of young supporters of this organization.”
The museum’s various social media accounts have flourished under Sinks’ digital strategy. Also critical are partnerships with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association. Sinks said such significant partnerships speak volumes about what the museum staff has been able to accomplish The partnerships paved the way toward twin $1 million contributions to support the museum, in 2017 and 2020, and in December Major League Baseball officially, finally, recognized the Negro Leagues with “Major League” status.
Former players and others associated with the game collaborate with the museum daily on the sharing of the 101 facts about the Negro Leagues. Retired big leaguers Dave Stewart and Fred McGriff, current Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman KeBryan Hayes ... even the great-grandson of Negro Leagues great Josh Gibson, Sean Gibson, have appeared in a 101 campaign video.
“All these amazing people who play professionally in Major League Baseball as Black athletes, but nevertheless, just sharing about the history of the Negro League — I mean, that resonates with people,” Sinks said.
‘Triumph in conquest’
Kendrick fell in love with the museum and began volunteering there in 1993. The work felt important then and still does. As Kendrick sees it, Negro Leagues baseball changed not only the game, but the entire country, its culture.
And baseball’s history is incomplete without the stories of those Black players.
“While the story is obviously anchored against the ugliness of American segregation, a horrible chapter in this country’s history, the real story is what happens out of segregation — this wonderful story of triumph in conquest,” Kendrick said. “They laid the foundation for not only changing the game, but also sparking a civil rights movement in this country. All of this is embedded inside this wonderful story of these courageous athletes who just wanted to play ball.”
This Negro Leagues 101 campaign, and the museum itself, is about telling and retelling important stories that might go largely unshared otherwise, but it’s more than that. The Negro Leagues’ overarching story is one of triumph and celebration, of Black history and Black community based not around trauma or suffering, but on overcoming. While Black baseball leagues sprang out of necessity because of segregation, the lasting impacts of the Negro Leagues are diversity, equity, inclusion and respect.
“It’s really important that you don’t just see the downtrodden aspect of my journey into citizenship in this country, the image of me as an enslaved person and fight for continual fight for civil rights in this country,” Kendrick said. “Those images have been pretty big, and pretty painful, and most folks cannot relate to my story. You might empathize with it. But you cannot relate to that.
“But you can relate to my success stories. And my success stories have not been put in their proper perspective.”
Kendrick said there’s two sides of life for Black people in this country: suffering and racism endured, but also success and triumph.
“The Negro Leagues are one of those great American success stories,” he said. “It’s all based on that one simple principle: If you won’t let me play with you, I’ll create my own. And there’s something very American about that spirit. As I tell my guests all the time, while America was trying to prevent them from sharing the joys of our so-called ‘national pastime,’ it was indeed the American spirit that allowed them to persevere and prevail.
“That story may be more important today than ever before, with the things that we’ve seen rear its ugly head in recent times in this country.”
With every 101 fact shared this summer, every story told, Kendrick wants those reading and listening to come away cheering the persevering power of the human spirit. Kendrick believes his audience — socially conscious young people in this country, especially — is more eager than ever to be engaged.
“A full understanding of baseball includes knowing the history and legacy of the men and women in the Negro Leagues who paved the way for so many of us,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement. “I commend the museum for its commitment to preserve, celebrate and educate the public through this campaign and am glad we can help raise awareness along with Major League Baseball.”
