I met a man today - Phil S. Dixon. Mr. Dixon, a founding board member of the Negro League Baseball Museum, is an expert on African American baseball. He has written several books and articles about the topic. I presented your situation to him and he is interested in helping. Here is a link to his site:http://www.philsdixonbaseball.com/about.htm He is familar with the team & thought he may have some research notes about them, he is going to check. As you know, some of the Monrovians also played for the Monarchs. Meanwhile, he was curious if you had a photo, any photo, of your Grandfather. If you do, you can send to me digitally @ drppearson@yahoo.com.

Very interesting article. It originally appeared in The Baseball Research Journal 37.(Annual 2008): p51(11). I've downloaded & read. The author's research is excellent, but not flawless, cuz he didn't find you. I located some of his sources after your initial posting here at KSHS. Which is the bad news - I looked and have not been able to find much information on the Monorvians here in Topeka or in Wichita repositories. The good news is I still have a firm belief that most of Wichita's Black history is still in a box in someone's basement, attic or closet. Have tried talking to relatives close & distant about your grandfather? Anything would be helpful for a next step, a possible clue - Photos? papers? Give me a lead & I will help follow it.

All good points…. And good observation Castile

I only offer more points to further the discussion than concrete solutions.
Today I read a quote of the Dalai Lama’s that I feel is relevant to this conversation.
“A positive future can never emerge from a mind of anger and despair”.

What is the status message of our community that we are sending to our kids?

With this quote I offer three possible strategies.
The first strategy is having an open and honest dialog with the children and young adults that we wish to impact. Changing aspirations, changing motivations are all things that happen within in the individual as your concentric circles point out. It seems frequently in our enthusiasm to solve, help, fix and correct we forgot to ask the person what they want and/or need. We forget to facilitate shared authority of all parties involved in the challenges. And yes, I believe initial efforts will fall short. And yes, I know it has been tried before. However, I believe showing consistency and continuing even when it appears efforts have fallen through will create a pathway rather than blocking one.

The second suggestion I would offer as a point of discussion is HOW we speak of ourselves to our youth and ourselves. Frequently when I leave the same informational public meetings I have a mind of “anger and despair”. I think we continually focus on the negative and never celebrate or “spin” the positive to our advantage. We didn’t always talk about ourselves in this manner.

For research purposes I read historic newspapers and the collective voice of the community sometimes amazes me. The acknowledgment of community and life shortcomings is always coupled with the smallest success stories. And some successes were small by today’s standards – opening a business or being the "first" at something, was claimed and celebrated by the entire community.
At times we inadvertently communicate our expectations through the statistics we choose to quote. We need to consider whether we are fostering fear or aspiration when we speak. Instead telling our children to look to the left and then to the right at a meeting & announcing 40% of you will be in jail – let’s tell them 60% of you will graduate from high school and then of those 60%, at least 80% will graduate from college. Same numbers – just spun to our advantage. I want my 19 year old to know that he can go to jail without just cause – that’s the reality of the situation. Though it may sound naïve, I also want him to know the reality of the situation is that the odds are pretty good that since he graduated from high school that he can graduate from college.
Our collective community script needs to change.

Finally, both children and adults in our community need to have permission to succeed out in the open instead of isolation. At time we focus all of our energies and efforts on the challenge and their is a whole group of people standing to side with no encouragement or motivation to keep preserving.

I think the social change you want does not have a linear path to nirvana.
You've got a lessons learned, best practice story to draw from - How did you create your own internal change?

I'm interested in helping track down a roster - can you please share where you saw your grandfather's name associated with the game?

Actually, Kev I see no point in trying to “talk you down”. For it is when you and others like you make it known that the events that transpired that night are unacceptable can a change begin to happen. I hope I can stay upset about this for a long while. Here is why.

Carter G. Woodson, the Father of African American history ultimate goal was to incorporate the entire story of Africans and African Americans into the history that was (perhaps still is) a decidedly white oriented. Listening to the speakers and comments at the forum it was hard to tell if “we”, 76 years later, really have eradicated the social, economic and political factors that compelled Woodson to write the Mis-education of the Negro in 1933.

Woodson said, “ Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” At this point I would say very few of us use "history" as an everyday tool to battle the invisible forces that keep all from reaching their individual potential.

It is only now that I am older do I realize that knowing my family history has made a difference in my thoughts and actions throughout my life. If I had not learned my grandmother went back to college to obtain her various degrees in her 40s and 50s after doing domestic and factory work all of her life, I would not be able to tackle the journey to complete earning mine. If I had not learned my great-grandmother came to a small town in Kansas where she owned land and businesses in the 1920’s and 30’s when single black woman should be cleaning someone’s house, I would always assume that the doors of opportunity that appear to be closed could never be magically opened. But I also learned from another grandmother and grandfather that letting go of their Indian land allotments provided their children and their children’s children more opportunities in Kansas than could be obtained in segregated Oklahoma. These stories that I learned growing up now make even more sense and have more meaning now that I know and understand American history.

According to my business card, I am a professional in the field and find it an uphill battle to create the shared authority, getting people to participate in the process, that good history consists of. I want everyone to have the opportunity to participate in the creation and dissemination of history 365 days a year. We can only move from being “important” 28 days a year till we make it known we expect rather demand the information the other 337. I know and understand that having that time set aside provides an easy entry point for further examination and exploration. But then what? How do we keep a community curious enough about its history to make an impact to the point of inspiration? Perhaps a forum is necessary to talk about creating solutions, being FOR something, and not just the problems.

Nope, I see no reason to talk you down…

Please keep us all informed on this project. Not only does the census help with local funding issues it is also tied to voting. Coupled with registering to vote, participating in the census is probably the second most important political activity we can participate in, and most don't even know it. Public Law 94-171, in effect for the past 30 years, gives the Census folks a mandate to partner with states in providing reliable counts for redistricting and reapportion activities. This impacts so many things in our ability to cast a vote such as the polling areas, precincts and voting districts. We only have a shot at this every 10 years. If you believe in our country's ideal of One Person, One Vote encourage everyone you know to fill out their census form.

I wonder how people feel about having these items in permanent museum collections?

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/