Hear from leaders in Kansas City’s black community including the president of the Negro Leagues Museum, Bob Kendrick, author Larry Lester, and more as they discuss the importance of the league in the national context but more importantly in the lives of the black community that thrived around 18th and Vine. Introductory meetings to form the league began on February 13th, 1920 and in the 100 years following Kansas City saw the greatest athletes play at Municipal Stadium, integrate Major League Baseball, create a thriving community in redlined neighborhoods, and carry on a historical legacy in the middle of America. The documentary will begin at these talks and weave through the success of the African American community between the 1920s and 1930s, with the sparks of BBQ and Jazz, economic development of 18th and Vine, the issues of redlining, the prestige of the Kansas City Monarchs, and end at the efforts to preserve and restore the legacy with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Kansas City PBS - KCPT, Kansas City
