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The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has launched a US$25m capital campaign to build a new 30,000sq ft facility celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its impact on the social advancement of America
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 04 May 2023
A new state-of-the-art facility will be built adjacent to the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center Credit: NLBM
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) has embarked on a US$25m (€22.7m, £19.9m) fundraising campaign to build a new education centre telling the powerful stories behind its unique collection of baseball memorabilia.
First established in Kansas City in 1990, with a goal to preserve and celebrate the rich history of African American baseball and its impact on the social advancement of America, the NLBM currently operates two blocks away from the proposed site of its new home adjacent to the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center (BOERC) - the former Paseo YMCA where the Negro Leagues were founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster in 1920.
The proposal calls for a 30,000sq ft (2,800sq m) facility equipped with the latest technologies that will be used to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity through the lens of America’s unsung baseball heroes who overcame tremendous social adversity to play the sport.
In combination with the BOERC, the new NLBM will form a “Negro Leagues Campus”, which will act as a gateway to Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine District and offer “a catalyst for economic growth in a vastly underserved, predominantly African American community.”
The funding campaign has been kickstarted with a US$1m (€909,000, £796,000) grant from Bank of America. This initial support will allow the NLBM to expand programming, create dynamic interactive displays, house a gallery to showcase new exhibitions, feature a larger gift shop, and include a more expansive archival and storage space.
“Thanks to the generosity and continued support of Bank of America, the future of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum begins today,” said Bob Kendrick, museum president.
“Our growth from a one-room office to becoming America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has been an amazing journey. Now, we’re building an organisation that will continue to preserve and celebrate the triumphant story of the Negro Leagues but also fortify our position as one of the nation’s most important civil rights and social justice institutions.”
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