Daytona State Library to host traveling baseball exhibition

The 1935 Negro League champion Pittsburgh Crawfords

The Daytona State College library will host the highly acclaimed traveling exhibition Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience, from Jan. 31 through March 3. Daytona State’s library is among 50 across the country selected to host the exhibition, which is based on a permanent display of the same name at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

"We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this important exhibition," said Dr. Michelle McCraney, Daytona State’s associate vice president of library services. "This exhibition tells remarkable stories of players and teams who, despite being shut out of major league baseball, still persevered and, in fact, helped advance a sport they loved."

The free exhibition is composed of colorful panels featuring photographs of teams, players, original documents and artifacts in the collections of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and in other institutions and collections across the U.S. It examines the challenges faced by African-American baseball players beginning in the post-Civil War era, highlighting such historical icons as Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first African American to play professional baseball; Rube Foster, who pioneered the first successful black baseball league – the Negro National League – in 1920; the Kansas City Monarchs, who were among the first to play nighttime games using their own generators and light stands as a means of increasing attendance and gate receipts; Jackie Robinson, one of the game’s all-time greats who finally broke the color barrier in 1947; and Satchel Paige the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame based solely on his performance in the Negro leagues.

Pride and Passion was organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the American Library Association Public Programs Office, Chicago. The exhibition has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life.

The library, located in bldg. 210 on the Daytona Beach Campus, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., will be sponsoring free programs and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition. Regular library hours of operation: Monday – Thursday, 7:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.; and Saturday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

For more information or to arrange a group tour, please contact Dustin R. Weeks, (386) 506-3593, or weeksd@daytonastate.edu.