Museum to host SABR’s Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference June 6-9

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will celebrate Black Baseball this spring with the opening of the groundbreaking new exhibit The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.

And as the first visitors are experiencing the exhibit, the Society for American Baseball Research will join in the festivities by hosting the annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference June 6-9 in the Museum’s Grandstand Theater.

Open to all baseball fans, the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference promotes activities to enhance scholarly, educational and Literary Objectives as the only symposium dedicated exclusively to the examination and promotion of Black baseball history. SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee is one of the original committees formed by the organization, which was founded in Cooperstown in 1971.

Located on the Museum’s second floor, The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball will spotlight the decades-long history of Black baseball prior to the formation of the Negro Leagues, through the complexities of baseball’s reintegration, to the challenges that remain today, revealing the deep connections between baseball and Black America.

Located on the Museum’s second floor in the Yawkey Gallery, the exhibit is part of the Hall of Fame’s Black Baseball Initiative that includes additional outreach programs, educational materials and virtual programming and is made possible by the Yawkey Foundation with additional support from Bill Janetschek in honor of his siblings Robert and Ann, the Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation and the Bisignano Family. The initiative will also enhance Black Baseball stories found throughout the Museum.

The Souls of the Game exhibit will highlight first-person accounts by the many individuals whose Black baseball experiences shaped them, their community, baseball and America at large. Featuring historically significant artifacts, important documents and engaging photographs, and utilizing audio, video, and interactive elements, the exhibit will tell a more inclusive story of baseball, shine a light on and correct misconceptions about Black baseball, and provide an authentic, cohesive narrative of African-American baseball history.

For more information about the Museum’s Black Baseball Initiative, click here.