Vandalized Jackie Robinson memorial finds new home at Kansas City’s Negro Leagues museum
A vandalized marker denoting where hall of fame legend Jackie Robinson grew up is moving to Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, staff announced on Saturday.
Built in 2001, the sign commemorated Robinson’s humble beginnings in a remote town of Grady County, Georgia. But after community members discovered the plaque sprayed with bullets in late February 2021, it took on a new meaning, representing the continuing violence of racism against African Americans.
President of the museum, Bob Kendrick, said on Twitter that the marker will “remind us of the courage [Robinson] demonstrated 75 years ago when he broke the MLB’s color barrier.”
Another representative from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Kiona Sinks, wrote on Twitter that the latest addition shows “that the ugliness of America’s past persists to this day.”
Curator and vice president of the museum, Ray Doswell, said the defaced marker is not an item that they would typically seek. But after speaking to the Georgia Historical Society, it appeared an opportunity to teach the public about Robinson’s story and combatting hate.
“I have not physically seen the damaged sign yet,” Doswell said as he was leaving a Georgia ceremony for the Kansas City museum’s acquisition.
The sign is one of several other markers representing the history of African-Americans that was damaged in Georgia last year.
“The Robinson marker has the least amount, but the damage was still too deep to repair,” he said.
A case needs to be built and spot secured in the museum before it can be exhibited. Doswell said all the paperwork is in the works, but it won’t be until around mid-April, when the museum celebrates the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, that it will be shown publicly.
The sign is expected to be permanently loaned to the Kansas City museum for regular display.
The original sign was dedicated more than 20 years ago.
Locals of Robinson’s hometown have replaced it in Georgia, thanks to help from Major League Baseball, which donated $40,000 to the Georgia Historical society, according to a New York Times report. The marker was reinstalled along with a second marker at a local library on Jan. 26.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 2:38 PM.
