PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An exhibit at the Cherry Street Pier showcases the history of Philadelphia Negro League baseball and its continuing legacy.
The exhibit — titled "A League Apart" — actually started as a University of the Arts graduate school project for Carolyn Quick.
“We had a choice to pick whatever topic that we wanted as long as it had to deal with Philadelphia and from a social justice perspective,” she said, “and it's one of those things where ever since I was little, I was going to baseball games and, you know what, if I'm gonna spend a semester of school doing a project, why not talk about baseball?”
Quick aced the project, but then it grew into something more.
“One of my professors had the great idea of reaching out to Shibe Vintage Sports, and also suggested really reaching out to the community and people who know, including the Phillies, on how to proceed about this project. And especially since I'm not from Philly, I was like, ‘OK, I need definitely the community's help and make sure I'm telling the right stories on this one,’” she recalled.
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The exhibit features four "Barrier Breakers" — Octavius Catto, Ed Bolden, Dick Allen and Mo’ne Davis. Visitors can learn their stories and their impact on the game. “Hopefully people remember those names or at least remember their stories and maybe look up who they were,” said Brian Michael, the exhibit’s producer, “because they were all integral figures in Philadelphia history, baseball history, social, racial history here in the city.”
The exhibit is free and will be on display through August 24, but Michael, who co-owns Shibe Vintage Sports, says they plan to build on it going forward.
“Over the next two, three years with an eye on 2026 when the baseball All Star Game is here in Philly and the World Cup and all of the American celebration, we hope to be a big part of that,” he said.
“In the meantime, we're gonna grow, expand some of the content, some of what we talk about some of the individual stories besides just those four barrier breakers and also add more interactive parts, some trivia aspects, some baseball card aspects and ways that people can interact with it and, and take home the story some more.”
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