It wasn't like there was a lot of black sports writers at major metropolitan dailies, because there weren't any.

And now when I moved to New York after graduating college, I was the first black sports writer for New York Daily News.

So I can only imagine the cats that back in the 30s and 40s. I mean, those were

giants.

One of my favorite displays here at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and this is one that we

added a few years ago, is called the press box theater.

And the display is a salute to the black press.

And you have to understand that the black press was both instrumental in pushing for the formation of the Negro leagues and then ultimately pushing for the integration of the game of baseball.

They had become the voice.

They were the voice that documented and substantiated the information that we have on the Negro Leagues.

My early career began at the Kansas City Star.

At that time, as an aspiring print journalist,

and I ultimately gravitated to the promotional side of the business, which is how I got introduced to the Negro Leagues baseball museum.

By putting together the museum's promotional campaign to promote its traveling exhibition, Discover Greatness.

That was way back in 1993, and that exhibit is still touring the country to this

day. And I remember going through the archives of the Kansas City Star at that time, and as great

as the Kansas City Monarchs were, there was very little in the Stars' archives about the Monarchs.

Few photographs.

Every now and then, a few clipping that might include a box school.

Now remember, when we talk about the Kansas City Monarchs,

we're talking about one of the greatest baseball franchises,

not in just black baseball history, but in baseball history.

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