FORT SCOTT, Kans. — In honor of Black History Month, the Gordon Parks Museum is highlighting the Kansas City Monarchs and the history of baseball in Kansas.
Author and Negro League Historian Phil S. Dixon presented and took part in a discussion on the subjects Thursday in Fort Scott.
Dixon is a Kansas native and a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. He has published 10 books about baseball, and he has interviewed more than 500 former Negro League players and family members.
The event was put on by the Kansas City Monarchs and America’s National Pastime which is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau.
“It gives me a chance to come down to communities who when they think of the Negro League story they don’t think of themselves. So it gives me a chance to come into those communities and tell those stories and really localize the history so the Kansas City Monarchs aren’t no longer just Kansas City but they’re you know today Fort Scott,” said Dixon.
The Kansas City Monarchs traveled throughout Kansas and the region playing more than 400 games between 1920 and 1957 against local towns.
