How much do you know about the impact African–American baseball players made on America’s favorite pastime? Find out at the Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience, a new traveling exhibition on display through Aug. 27 at Lone Star College-CyFair.
“African-American players helped advance the game of baseball in many ways,” said Mick Stafford, Harris County Public Library LSC-CyFair Branch Director of Library and Information Services. “This exhibition tells many remarkable stories of players and teams who were shut out of major league baseball, but persevered in a sport they loved.”
Did you know the Negro league baseball grew into a multi-million dollar enterprise or that a Negro league team developed a successful lighting system for night games, five years before Major League Baseball played its first night game? What do you know about legendary figures such as Rube Foster, Buck Leonard, Oscar Charleston, James “Cool Papa” Bell, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson? Do you know when baseball became a segregated sport, who broke the color barrier in 1947 or who became the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame based solely on his performance in the Negro leagues?
Learn the answers to these questions and more at the traveling exhibition composed of colorful freestanding panels featuring photographs of teams, players, original documents and artifacts. Then check out the library’s free programs, book clubs and presentations as well as baseball-themed storytimes and crafts for children in the Kids Corner.
For information or a full schedule of exhibition-related library programs, go to LoneStar.edu/library/prideandpassion or call 281.290.5276. The library is located on the LSC-CyFair campus at 9191 Baker Cypress. For information, go to LoneStar.edu.
About Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience
This American Library Association traveling exhibition for libraries was organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York, and the American Library Association Public Programs Office, Chicago. The traveling exhibition has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name on permanent display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.