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MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation announces $500,000 grant to Negro Leagues Family Alliance
The MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation announced a $500,000 grant to benefit the Negro Leagues Family Alliance (NLFA). The grant will support the Alliance’s mission to preserve the legacy of the Negro Leagues and their players for future generations, while supporting initiatives around education and wellness as well as expanding youth baseball participation in underserved communities.
Negro Leagues Family Alliance Uplifts Generations of Influential Black Families Connected to the Legacy of Baseball
Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLB-MLBPA) Youth Development Foundation's announcement to gift a $500,000 grant to benefit the NLFA was one of the first steps in establishing a partnership that both groups hope can be fruitful for both sides. The NLFA accepted the grant at a Juneteenth celebration at Birmingham’s Negro Southern League Museum (NSLM), which doubled as an impromptu memorial service for Willie Mays.
Negro League Baseball Research Library to Open For Researchers in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on July 6th, 2024
In May 2018, Rose Hunter, the Executive Director of The Buck Leonard Association for Sports and Human Enrichment and stepdaughter of Negro League Baseball Hall-of-Famer, Walter Fenner “Buck” Leonard decided to not only create a children’s library to serve the children of her community, but to also to establish a Negro Leagues Baseball Research Center and Library, primarily, but not exclusively, for Negro League Baseball researchers in the Mid-Atlantic region of the country.
Now, six years later, that commitment has become a reality. Currently housed at The Mill on Falls Road in Rocky Mount, the research collection of over 525 and counting books, periodicals and other research material will be open for researchers beginning on Saturday, July 6th. For more information or to schedule an appointment contact Rose Hunter at buckleonard91@gmail.com.
Image courtesy of the Stearnes Family
Article written by Joyce Stearnes Thompson
Negro Leagues Weekend & Turkey Stearnes Centennial
The 23rd annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference Celebrating Turkey Stearnes Centennial, the Negro Leagues & Civil Rights was held in Detroit, MI July 20th-July 23rd.
On July 22nd the first 15,000 fans received a replica Detroit Stars jersey with Turkey’s number 8 on the back. Also, the Stearnes sisters were presented a framed Detroit Stars jersey on the field.
Image courtesy of MLB.com
Article written by Jason Beck
Detroit's Negro Leagues stadium alive and thriving
Today, Hamtramck Stadium is thriving, renovated to host everything from Detroit high school games to youth and travel ball tournaments to cricket clubs and even a kickball match. Fitting, then, that for the Juneteenth holiday on Monday afternoon, Stearnes’ daughters joined family members, friends, media and interested locals for a ceremony honoring Stearnes for the 100th anniversary of Stearnes’ rookie season in Detroit.
Image courtesy of Thunder Twins Beer
Bronze Thunder Twins IPA beer & fundraising campaign pays homage to Negro Leagues Baseball Legends
In the spring of 1943, legendary slugger Josh Gibson and team captain Walter “Buck” Leonard were preparing to lead the great Homestead Grays to the first of Back-to-Back Negro Leagues Baseball World Series Crowns. The “Dynamic Duo” of the trailblazing Negro Leagues bashed their way into the record books while anchoring a star-laden lineup.
Image courtesy of Ebbets Field Flannels
Message from The Gibson Family and The Josh Gibson Foundation
Josh Gibson Foundation and Ebbets Field Flannels Inc. the prestigious sports clothing company, has just released a range of Josh Gibson merchandise. EFF worked closely with the Josh Gibson family to design these tributes to Josh in honor of his life and legacy…
Image courtesy of The Detroit News
New 'Alliance' seeks May 2 holiday celebrating Negro Leagues as 'equal' to MLB
The work is just beginning — but a new, organized direction should help.
Announced Thursday was the formation of the Negro Leagues Family Alliance, a group aimed at preserving “the legacies, history and intellectual properties of the Negro Leagues while contributing to the education and uplift of baseball and sports.”
Image courtesy of The Athletic
Families of Negro Leagues players launch group to preserve historical legacy
Lydia Teasley can only fit so many people in her kindergarten classroom at Dorothy Montessori School in Oak Park, Mich. If she could, she’d give everyone a seat as she shares with the class a paper she wrote about her dad, Ron. He’s 96. She says he’s the coolest guy she knows. And he’s one of the few men still living who played baseball in the golden era of the Negro Leagues.…
Image courtesy of Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
Us: Meet 4 Pittsburgh Hall of Famers who never played for the Pirates
Family members see Black ballplayers honored by the team that passed them by…