Graduated in and we had all of 1969. The things the other cities had the panthers, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, the drug culture, the antivietnam phase. Everything was here. All at one time. One thing i learned about kansas city at that point time was we tended to be softer on all of issues than others. Our riots were not as vast. We came together to put those out and we moved forward. We learned how to get along with each other although in my opinion, we still remain too segregated. We have to do more to bring our people together across color barriers, and we are working on that seriously. But the things that i remember are the things i grew up with, growing up in a time in the city where there was a lot of conflict and watching how the city has dealt with that conflict in a way that kept it together without falling apart and moving forward. Baseball museum, his stork 18th and fine in kansas city, missouri. Here we document the story of black baseball in america in general and the professional midroll be specifically. Essentially you didst you just walked into an old bar part. The ballpark. You are going to meet some new baseball heroes. The first thing you see is the field. Here it is the field of legends. And as you can see, it is a mock baseball diamond that houses 10 or 12 lifestyle sculptures of grace. G reats. They represent 10 of the first group of Negro League Players to be inducted into the National Baseball hall of fame in cooperstown. That is how the allstar team was chosen. Thehe outside looking in is only one of our collection of statues that is not an interNational Baseball hall of fame. He should be. , he is alsocapacity the cofounder of the Negro League Baseball museum, and he is managing this great allstar team we have assembled. They look come in, through the chicken wire, they see this incredible display, and we hope it invokes the desire, i cant wait to walk among those statues. But at the Negro League Baseball museum we segregate you from the field. We want our visitors to at least remotely experience what segregation was like. These athletes new full well they were good enough to play in the major lease. So close to it, yet so far. So here you can see the field but you cant get to it. You have to earn taht right, and that right, and you do it by learning their stories. Then you can take the field. Let me introduce you to read foster, the genius. He established a negro leagues here in 1920 at a meeting that took place at the old for sale ymca. Right around the corner from wendy from where the museum currently operates deformity nico National League they would operate amazingly for 40 years from 19 20th 1960. 1960. M 1920 to then there was Jackie Robinson. It took major League Baseball 12 years before a every majorleague team had at least one black baseball player. Virtually no one knows anyone at the greatest mind this sport has ever seen. Sometimes lost in the romantic nature of these courageous athletes who overcame tremendous social adversity to play this game that they love, is the fact that Negro League Baseball was a thriving black business enterprise. Had inspiring it other businesses probably was greater than any other business during that time in the Africanamerican Community. The street hotel was a blackowned hotel here in the historic 18 and fine vine. It was not a travesty to have to stay here because if you are black and visited kansas city this is one of the few places a black person could stay in a hotel and it was the most majestic that was here in kansas city. This depicts the sitting room of the old street hotel. You could walk in the sitting room any given day and you might see sitting in one of these chairs, former heavyweight boxing champion joe lewis, or jesse owens. Heres the legendary orchestra leader. Surrounded by members of the kansas city monarchs. He loved the kansas city monarchs. So much so, they were put in a uniform and he sat on the bench and served as an honorary coach. Throwing out the first pitch at the allstar game. Cab callaway had his own team, as did louis armstrong. All the jazz musicians wanted to be Baseball Players. All the Baseball Players wanted to be jazz musicians. It was only fitting they came here when they had the best of both worlds jazz and baseball. So kansas city was jumping. You could get a gig in kansas city where you could not get a gig anywhere else in the world because you had all the nightclubs had music, clubs galore here at 18th and 12th and vine. This place was wide open and baseball and jazz intersected. That intrinsic mixture of jazz and baseball which rated from which radiated from 18th and v ine. It was recognized everywhere in the world. World war ii. Have the irony of young black soldiers dying fighting the same races in another country that we are being asked let led to the movement of integrating americas socalled national pastime. If they could die fighting for the country, they ought to be able to play baseball in this country. Hat led to Jackie Robinson jackie plays here in 1945. He signed his contract to play in the dodgers organization. He spent the 1946 system in the dodgers farm system, then in made that monumental walk on the field for the brooklyn dodgers, forever changing this country. Theres no question jackies breaking of the color barriers is one of the most significant events in american history. The museum makes the bold assertion that robinsons breaking of the color barrier was not just a part of the civil rights movement, it was the beginning of the civil rights movement. 1947. This is well before the more noted civil rights occurrences. This is before rosa parks ref usal to move to the back to the bus. Dr. Martin luther king jr. Was a sophomore at morehouse when robinson signed that contract. Printed in treatment would not integrate the military until one year after jackie. So for all intents and purposes, this started the ball of social progress rolling in our country. The integration of our sport is bittersweet. It is bitter because i am not sure the Africanamerican Community was aware of what was losing when we lost the legal release the negro leagues. It had been so impactful in helping businesses and driving black culture. When we lost the negro leagues, we lost a lot of that. Segregation mandated ownership. And so with integration, we lost that. The degree of ownership that was so prevalent during that era of segregation in the Africanamerican Community, i dont know if we will see that level of ownership again. I say we hope that we will, but we lost a lot. And so it was good for the soul of our country, integration, and ultimately the integration of our sport, which triggered integration of our society. It was good for the soul of our country. In ways the socially i dont think we ever even fathomed was possible. But it was absolutely devastating economically. We finally make our way to the field where we are greeted by the uniform displays, and these incredible lifesize bronze sculptures of negro league grace grades greats. There are few if any who ever did it better than he did. Neagro league teaches us is simple. If you did to dream and you believe in yourself you can do or be anything you want to be. These athletes dreaming of playing baseball, they had no idea they were making history. Frankly, they didnt care about making history. They just wanted to play ball. But the passion, perseverance, encourage these men demonstrated in the face of adversity would not only change our sport, it changed our country for the better. Tom pendergast was it political boss in kansas city, missouri during the 1920s and 30s. Next, a look at how 19 at how Tom Pendergast helped shape the city and national politics. Tom petty guest was the political pendergast was in control from 1925 to 1939. The political machine got its ,tart from his older brother who came to kansas city in the 1880s and got started establishing this machine first ward of kansas city, which was in the Industrial Area down by the river. There is an irish community, Africanamerican Community that was very diverse. A lot of workingclass people. Jim had saloons. Precinct precinct to with a machine based on favors, basically helping people get jobs in exchange for votes. Helping people through giving them loans that you didnt have to get a formal bank loan. Jim would loan the money, settling gambling debts, skimming money off the top of illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution, and so on and so forth. When he Jim Pendergast, was getting older, his health was failing, his younger brother Tom Pendergast started a machine around the 1900s, he was elected city alderman and was in charge of streets for a few years in the early 1900s. And Tom Pendergast really was in a position to take over the machine by the time jim died in 1911. The legacy of Tom Pendergast and his family has been beat up and twisted and turned so many times over the years. Citian todays kansas doesnt understand what he did both good and bad. The family came here in the 1870s. What a lot of people dont realize is Tom Pendergast and his brother jim and seven other siblings were sons and daughters from immigrants from ireland. They came here as workingclass young men looking for jobs in kansas city. When big Jim Pendergast through sheer popularity when the see as the alderman during the first war which was a really influential war that a lot of immigrants and africanamericans and immigrants from all over the up in they had grown poverty themselves so the emphasized empathized with the working people. He became a Deputy Constable for the city courts and eventually became took on other positions within the city, appointed positions within the county. Then took over in 1910 as a city councilman, just like his brother had been. I think when you follow the trajectory of kansas city and its economy and its growth with the burgeoning immigrant groups coming in, people looking for kingdom, ifilt his you will, his political kingdom, on serving those underserved people. In other words, he knew that unlike today when politicians make intangible promises they are going to save the world, make the country prosperous for everyone tom through the years deliver tangible things for people he needed them. Whether it was medicine, whether it was coal, whether it was food. More importantly it was jobs. He learned early on the way to a persons heart is through his dignity. And with a job comes dignity. Got into theen he depression era were so many people were out of work trying to raise families, he knew the best thing he could do for anyone for a lifetime of favors returned is to get that person a job. And a political machine is to describe started it as the act of doing favors in exchange for votes. When you boil it down to its base elements, thats what it amounted to. It is being tied into organized crime, and other illicit activities, taking bribes and kickbacks. To make sureluence that your preferred candidates are elected. And then once you control the City Government, by 1925 the pendergast machine had full control over the city. Cityhad 5009 councilmembers handpicked by Tom Pendergast. At the city council they appointed Henry Mcelroy as city manager. And the city manager position was really more powerful than any other position in kansas city at the time. Whenever they did city mcelroyction projects, would make sure these contracts went to companies that were owned by Tom Pendergast. And pendergast owned mostly construction companies. Cement ready mix, that was a big one. He had insurance companies, liquor companies, of course, officially,st, they changed to beverage companies, at the time. All of these city contracts went through mcelroy back to pendergast and he gets the money. So there is the circle of money, pendergast always got his cut. There is a machine of money and in exchange he gets lots of votes. I am not trying to justify legacye Tom Pendergast of vote fraud in government control, but i do want to balance it with the fact that kansas city would not be the city it is today in the many good ways if it had not been for Tom Pendergast. Tom pendergast helped funnel money in during the depression from the new deal, and i used tax dollars in kansas city to put people to work. Building a lot of these major structures, city hall, the courthouse, Municipal Auditorium all of those became projects he helped control and helps garner the money to put people to work. He even split jobs during the depression so one guy would work half a day and another guy worked the other half so there were two jobs instead of one. He guided us through the depression. He had City Government and county government in one pocket he those influences to do a lot of good things. And of course the line his pockets at the same time. By 1932, the power actually went statewide. Guy parks was elected. They had influence in the state of missouri, at the Democratic National convention. In the 1930s, pendergast eventually selected truman to be senator from missouri. He was elected in the statewide vote. Throughhis point, pendergast i believe the number was he could produce about 70,000 fraudulent or ghost votes in any given election at this time. Of voteseer number that he could produce out of , they would be tallied and they were official, whether they were real or not. This. The power to do of extremee prejudice in the 1920s and 1930s, for instance, the ku klux klan was in kansas city in 1922 for a convention. 10,000 klansmen did a parade down grand avenue. While in the convention, when of their chance was, chants by, goodbye tom, goodbye joe, you have to go. Were referring to the Democratic Political scene locally. One of the reasons the ku klux klan targeted Tom Pendergast was he was later described as a man of equal opportunity graft. He treated africanamericans as voters, first and foremost. He helped any group that needed it as long as they were registered to vote. But i think thats another side of the pendergast machine that maybe was not copied, it was not replicated in other cities. He reached out and worked with all the different communities black, white when it came to election day because everyones vote was the same. Lateentually in the 1938, he got involved in an insurance kickback scheme. Eme, its not clear whether he broke the law with the scheme itself. Im not a lawyer so i cant explain that. But where he really ran into trouble is he did not report the income to the irs for income tax on his tax returns. It wast like al capone, the irs you finally caught up with Tom Pendergast. 1939 and wentd in to jail in leavenworth federal penitentiary. Nothing by 1945. And pendergast died of natural causes. Truman came to his funeral. Came viceo just president , came to the funeral of Tom Pendergast, during wartime, on a military plane. [laughter] a big controversy. Roosevelt died, and truman was president of the united states. So truman can never completely distance himself from his background with the machine. And he owned it. He said that pendergast always kept his word, and he wasnt going to abandon his friend. And so what we are trying to do is complicate that history, and i have done a little bit of that in this interview. But we are building a website currentlylude we have about 9500 scans of original documents. Lettersphotographs, written back then. I mentioned the court cases that unveiled voter fraud and other crimes. Website thatactive will combine the original documents with the new scholarships. To 18reached out in 2015 or other professors, Museum Professionals or historians, who have produced fulllength articles they would go in a book. Orre are new ideas in there new that have not been explored in any kind of depth before this. We are taking website versions of those, a little bit shorter, dear torrey pines look geared towards a public audience. Everything will be together. So when you are reading the essay you can click on see the documents that support the research. You can go read the court case that put pendergast in jail. A typicals dry as court case might sound when you think about everything that was going on at the time. But the scope is focusing on andergast and the machine, then exploring all of the implications of machine rule in kansas city, especially in the 1920s and 1930s when they were at their peak. Did he manipulate votes . Yes, probably. Did he employee maybe heavyhanded guys to convince you to vote the right way at the polls . Yes he did. Did he voted people . Yes he did vote dead people . Yes he did. But he was almost a robin hoodsort of person who used the money he made to put people to work and provide services. I onetime interviewed a guy who remembered growing up in the 1930s and he had a younger sibling who had died and maybe the age of three. He said we were poor, dad was out of work, and we had the funeral, the casket and all that, and we buried the brother. Took care of the costs. When times are tough, people are poor, they dont care about the politics so much, they dont care who holds the office. They care about how im going to eat today, how im going to find a job. They say that all about boss Tom Pendergast. We are going to break away and returned to our visit in kansas city, missouri in a couple minutes. Right now the house is coming in for a brief pro forma session. Lets watch