Memorial in the works to honor Baltimore's Black Sox baseball team
At one point, Baltimore was home to multiple Negro League baseball teams. Arguably, the Baltimore Black Sox are among the most well-known.
Progress on a memorial honoring its players continues in the old Westport and Middle Branch neighborhoods.
History of the Baltimore Black Sox baseball team
The Baltimore Black Sox baseball team was founded in 1913.
"[Baltimore] was a southern town. It's up south, but it's still the South, so you still had that Jim Crow culture that they had to navigate at the same time," said Dr. Teisha Dupree-Wilson, a history professor at Coppin State University.
The team began playing in Baltimore's Westport neighborhood in 1917 as part of the Negro Leagues.
"In a twofold way, Baltimore helped to prepare these men to fight even harder, because they're fighting professionally and personally, navigating in a city that is still being held by the tentacles of Jim Crow," Dupree-Wilson explained. "The fact that we're sitting here is proof that they survived difficult times."
Players like pitcher Franklin "Doc" Sykes would go on to not only play more professional baseball but also change the nation.
"We often only hear about New York and places like that. But Baltimore also has a role to play in this amazing culture that existed in the early part of the 20th century," said Dupree-Wilson. "And at a time when it was seen as a white man's domain, if you will, encouraging other African American young men to be involved in baseball."
Studying the Black Sox's impact
Dr. Dupree-Wilson and her students wrapped up their Black Sox research in November for a project to help honor the Black Sox players.
"The things that they did, of course, were to survey military records. They went to the National Archives. They looked through the census records as well," said Dupree-Wilson. "We found a lot of records related to these men's lives, and one of the things I told my students to find are the organizational ties that they had as well."
"If they were in a fraternity, I want to know about it. If they were a Mason, I want to know about it. And also, what did they do for their communities outside of playing sports?" she said.
The reason they gathered the information is to remember the player's impact in Baltimore, during the civil rights movement, and in the evolution of baseball.
"Sometimes, unfortunately, when we look at the athlete, we tend to not see the humanity in the athlete. And one of the things that we were really focused on was trying to humanize these men who did so many amazing things in baseball, but they also did a lot of amazing things in life," Dupree-Wilson said.
Black Sox memorial in the works
Dupree-Wilson and her students were brought into this effort by the President and CEO of Parks & People, Frank Lance, as the nonprofit enters the next phase of the Baltimore Black Sox Memorial.
"What a lot of people don't know is there are actually seven former Baltimore Black Sox players who are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame, " Lance said.
Lance shared that the upcoming memorial will be featured along a new African American Heritage Trail in South Baltimore.
"We're looking at 11 miles of South Baltimore from what's now known as Baltimore Peninsula, relative to Masonville Cove," Lance explained.
This trail will be a piece of the South Baltimore Gateway partnership's Reimagine Middle Branch Plan's framework.
"We're looking at the Middle Branch because that was one of the locations at which the lower Black Sox played," said Lance.
The exhibit that is coming is an important one, because it's a permanent monument, a permanent memorial to these men, but it also helps to show the importance of Baltimore in the Negro League story," said Dupree-Wilson.
Parks and People is now getting the community involved. Local artists will be selected to help bring their story to life in the form of a sculpture at the site.
"We're looking at them in a holistic manner, "said Dupree-Wilson.
"These men had to plan conditions that others did not," said Lance. "They succeeded, nonetheless. They thrived, nonetheless. They made it nonetheless."
Parks & People, South Baltimore Gateway Partnership will host a panel discussion celebrating the legacy of the Baltimore Black Sox and their impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
After the discussion, visitors can participate in preservation workshops on family genealogy and celebrate community traditions, including baseball and family celebrations.
The event will be held on Feb. 21 at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. To learn more, you can visit their website.
