I’m Mr. Beat I’m standing at the exact
location where, nearly 100 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan lost a baseball game…to an all-black team.
The year was 1925. The Ku Klux Klan, the infamous terrorist organization that pretty much hated
all groups of people who weren’t native, white Protestants, was trying to improve
its image. Sure, its membership had dramatically increased during the early 1920s, and it was no
longer a surprise to see scenes like THIS…weirdos parading down the street wearing white sheets on
their heads. But despite their more horrifyingly mainstream appeal at the time, they were still
quite a controversial group. After all, they targeted African Americans, Jews, Muslims,
homosexuals, communists, atheists, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. That’s uh…that’s
a lot of people. So, despite being out in the open like this, millions of others tried to ban them.
Including in places like where I’m at right now. (awkward pause) Oh,
I forgot to tell you. I’m in Wichita, Kansas.
On January 10, 1925, the Kansas Supreme Court said the Ku Klux Klan was a “foreign corporation,” and
therefore couldn’t conduct business in the state unless it got special permission from the state.
After the Kansas state legislature failed to pass a law that would have let the KKK do business
in the state without special permission, and after the state rejected the KKK’s request for
permission to do business in the state, the KKK was like, “oh crap, we better clean up our image.”
But instead of the KKK deciding to no longer hate and terrorize entire groups of people,
it was like, “let’s just play baseball instead.”
It planned a publicity stunt to make the KKK look more…better, I guess? It would play a
well promoted baseball game against a Negro League team. The Negro leagues were professional baseball
leagues made up entirely of African American teams. The Negro leagues existed, of course,
since baseball was segregated back then and blacks weren’t allowed to play Major League Baseball.
Anyway, the KKK asked the a Negro-League team named Wichita Monrovians if they’d like to
play a game. They agreed. The Monrovians, named in honor of the capital of Liberia,
by the way, mostly accepted the offer to raise money to fund the team but also to donate to
local charities. Oh here’s a fun fact. The name of the Monrovians catcher was Thomas
Jefferson, and yes he was named after the third President. His teammates called him “T-Baby,”
though. The KKK also got Irish Catholic umpires for the game to be like, “see,
we may hate blacks and the Irish, but at least we can get along with them for a baseball game, eh?”
The Wichita Beacon announced the Monrovians would host a game at Island Park Stadium
against Wichita Klan No. 6 on June 21, 1925. The article warned, “Strangle holds, razors,
horsewhips, and other violent implements of argument will be barred at the baseball game.”
But when the day of the game arrived, things were actually pretty chill around here.
Well, actually, they were really hot. It was 102 degrees outside. But it
was chill in terms of the people who showed up to watch the game.
Despite there being a “good-sized” interracial crowd, there was not
one instance of violence recorded during the game, on or off the field. In fact,
there wasn’t even any cheating. Perhaps it was too hot out for anyone to be angry. The first
half of the game was kind of boring. Only in the later innings did both teams start
to score several runs, probably since the heat had worn the pitchers down.
In case it wasn’t obvious, (point) the stadium where the game took place no longer exists. In
fact, the entire island it was located on no longer exists. Ackerman Island was a sandbar
island in the middle of the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita. Named after Joseph Ackerman,
a local business dude who bought the island, it also used to host an
amusement park called Wonderland Park. It closed down in 1918. Island Park baseball
stadium ultimately was torn down in 1933 due to flooding concerns. After this,
Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration hired 1500 unemployed men to remove the sand bar
by taking the east side of the island to fill in the west channel of the Arkansas River.
Where I’m currently standing used to be the island, but today it’s the west bank of the river.
So how did the baseball game end? Well, the Monrovians won 10-8,
but the game was so insignificant that there was no media fanfare. In fact,
all the Wichita Eagle recorded the next was a two-sentence report of the game,
with the headline “Monrovians Beat K.K.K.” It was a low-key event mostly forgotten in history.
Until now that is! Share this video with every animal you know.
This baseball game in which a Negro League team defeated a KKK team is evidence that perhaps race
relations in the United States during the 1920s wasn’t as bad as most of us tend to
think. In fact, for the rest of the decade, Wichita hosted plenty of more interracial
baseball games. And less than 22 years after the Negro League/KKK game in Wichita, Jackie
Robinson famously broke the color barrier when he made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15,
1947 in front of 16,623 surprisingly tolerant fans at Ebbets field in Brooklyn, New York.
In fact, I’d argue that not just baseball, but ALL sports have been better than nearly everything
else in history at uniting people of different backgrounds. So go my favorite sports team!
In case you’re wondering, I grew up outside of Wichita in the town of Augusta. When I
was a sophomore at Augusta High School, Mr. Beast was born in….wait for it…..
Wichita.
(walk off)